Airbags Don’t Deploy in 10% of U.S. Traffic Fatalities

Some 3,400 people in the U.S. die annually in frontal crashes in which their vehicles' airbags did not deploy, according to an analysis by Automotive News.

The newspaper notes that data from the government's Fatality Analysis Reporting System provide few clues about why airbags fail to inflate. It also cites a 2009 analysis by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and University of Maryland in which researchers say they would not have expected the airbags to deploy in more than half of such crashes.

AN's analysis was prompted by the General Motors Co. recall of 1.6 million vehicles linked to 12 fatalities in which the airbags apparently were deactivated by a defective ignition switch.

The newspaper identified 120 deaths resulting from frontal crashes where airbags weren't triggered in Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion small sedans covered by the GM recall.