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Almost 79 million (39.7%) of the 200 million cars and light trucks on U.S. roads have driver airbags. Over 50 million (25.4%) of these also have passenger airbags. Another 1 million new vehicles with airbags are being sold each month.

Through August, 1998, driver airbags inflated in about 2.9 million vehicles in crashes. Additionally, about 500,000 passenger airbags inflated when a passenger was occupying the right front seat.

Deaths in frontal crashes are reduced about 26 percent among drivers using safety belts and about 32 percent among drivers without belts.

Deaths in frontal crashes are reduced about 14 percent among right front passengers using their belts and about 23 percent among passengers without belts. However, deaths are about 34 percent higher than expected among child passengers younger than 10.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 3,448 people are alive today because of their airbags.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that the combination of an airbag plus a lap/shoulder belt reduces the risk of moderate and serious head injury by 75 percent, compared with a 38 percent reduction for belts alone.

Since 1990, 113 deaths reportedly have been caused by airbags inflating in low severity crashes. These deaths include 42 adult drivers, 5 adult passengers (a belted 98-year-old female, an unbelted 88-year-old female, an unbelted 57-year-old male, an unbelted 66-year-old female, and a belted 64-year-old female), 51 children between the ages of 1 and 11, and 15 infants (12 restrained in rear-facing infant seats and 3 on adult passengersí laps).

Of the 51 children killed by passenger airbags, 42 are believed to have been unbelted; 6 are believed to have been using lap belts only; and 3 were thought to be using lap/shoulder belts. Almost all crashes involved pre-impact braking and/or children sitting on front passenger laps, so that the children were close to the instrument panel at the time of deployment.

Of the 42 drivers killed by airbags (10 males, 32 females), 25 are believed to have been unbelted, 16 are believed to have been using lap/shoulder belts (5 of these may have misused their belts, 2 of these were unconscious and slumped over their steering wheels so they were on top of their airbags, 1 used the shoulder belt only; 1 used the lap belt only). Belt use is unknown for the other driver.