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Table of Contents

Cover Story

Cover Story - Spanish Version

Mini-Lesson

Comprehension Quiz

Teacher's Guide and Worksheets

Warning: Air Bags Can Be Dangerous!

Think car air bags will protect you in an accident? Think again. If you are under age 13 and sitting in the front seat, an air bag can hurt you. In at least 28 cases, the explosive power of air bags has killed young passengers.

Last week, for the first time, a U.S. government agency (the National Traffic Safety Administration) admitted that even when a child is properly buckled with a front-seat belt, he or she can be killed by an air bag. This happened to a young girl in Tennessee. The agency's advice: children under 13 should ride in the backseat.

There are some 15 million cars with passenger-side air bags on the road, and that number is growing. The air bags are designed to inflate instantly during an accident to cushion a passenger from harm. The problem is that they are designed for adults. Inflating at up to 200 miles an hour, the bags can crush a small child or strike the head.

U.S. automakers are trying to figure out how to make air bags safer for children. Eventually, auto experts say, cars will come equipped with an air bag that switches off automatically or adjusts to match the height of the passenger.

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