Looking at a 1991 244 for my teen daughter. She is petite - only 5'1". A family member who was an EMT and now a sherriff, says unless you are in a head on collision, the air bag is more dangerous than not. I've driven Volvos for years and have been hit a number of times w/o injury and w/o an air bag. Any info or thoughts on this would be appreciated. I want her as safe as possible but am concerned that this safety device could be dangerous for someone her size.

My friend came into work one day with black eyes and skin burnt off his nose ,cheeks and forehead where his airbag had gone off.This was his only injury from his accident. Kinda makes you think don,t it

I'd be much more worried abt the seating height providing her a suitable eyeball location relative to the windscreen/bonnet (hood) height for good vision. then modify the pedals so she can reach them comfortably, ditto other essential controls. Modify seat/vehicle as req'd to achieve a safe solution. Seatbelts are useful, but it may be illegal to remove/disconnect the airbag??? My old car doesn't have a bag, they're recently introduced into Oz as we've had compulsory seat belts since 70's. ppl still forget/ignore & get killed tho'. heavy fines don't work.

Yeah it does, I've been rear ended in my 82, 6 times with no damage to the car or myself. Do wonder if I could say the same if it had air bags. My daughter is such a little thing, it would probably get her full in the face. Maybe I should look for an older model w/o the airbags?

i had a bad accident when i was 17. i was hit head on by a lady who lost control of her car. she hit me at around 60 mph. my car had a rollcage and competition belts, for those who don't know what they are, it's the belts that have 5 seperate belts that lock on your chest, race car seat belts. yeah, the car was kind of illegal, just barely streetable. anyway, she hits me and the steering column doesn't collapse like it is supposed to. my seat didn't move, the rollcage didn't move, the seatbelts kepy my tattooed butt in place, but the steering column slammed into my chest. i played football and was on the high school wrestling team. i was courted by the university that i went to with a football scholarship, besides an academic scholarship, so i was quite a large individual. the steering wheel and especially the horn button, pretty much snapped my sternum. the emt's had told me if it wasn't for the fact that i was an overly muscled meat head, i would have been harpooned by the column. the point is, keep the bags and adjust the seat. end of story.

Side note:Oz air bags are different from US airbags because of the compulsory use of seatbelts here. Apparently they parameters of operation are sufficiently different to justify it. I suspect they don't have to be quite as 'good', and may injure more if they were too 'good'. I'm very happy to be corrected, of course....

Manxman, I suspect your airbags are the same as airbags in the US. I can't imagine vehicle manufactures can afford to manufacture variants on such an expensive feature depending on the laws of a particular country... Thanks to Volvo for leading the way. Don't mess with the airbags.

Besides we're not so far behind as you might think. Seatbelt use is mandatory in NC. The US Federal Government attempts to influence states when it comes to safety by with holding federal highway funds for those that don't comply. Check out this link: http://www.buckleupnc.org/index.cfm

The only thing that upsets me is the small fine imposed for the law breakers. I'm a firm believer in seatbelt use ever since I found a high school kid pinned under his car after being thrown through his windshield. As a LE officer, know that seatbelt non-use is a legal stop to check for other violations were probable cause hasn't been established. That includes passengers in the back seat...

Interesting reading on 1995 850 air bag restraint system...

http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/tech/service/8...raintSystem.pdf

I'll bet the old guys in the junk yard have fun with this...

SCRAPPED VEHICLE
WARNING: An undeployed air bag module, seat belt tensioner and/or
SIPS module cannot be disposed of without first deploying
air bag, seat belt tensioner, and/or SIPS module. If this is
not possible through procedures outlined below, contact
vehicle manufacturer for further instructions. Perform
remote deployment outdoors. To avoid personal injury when an
air bag is deployed, keep all personnel at least 20 feet
away. See SERVICE PRECAUTIONS.
Air Bag Module
1) Move vehicle outdoors to a remote area, away from workshop
and other personnel. Disconnect negative battery cable. Open all
vehicle windows and doors. Ensure air bag module is secured to
steering wheel or instrument panel (if equipped). Remove any loose
articles from front seat. Ensure no occupants are inside vehicle.
2) Disconnect driver-side air bag module Orange connector or
passenger-side Violet connector. See Fig. 1. Using two 20-foot long
wires, splice one end of each wire to air bag side of Orange connector
Orange and Orange/White wires. On passenger-side, connect wires to
Violet connector, Brown and Blue wires. While at least 20 feet from
vehicle, connect both wires to 12-volt power source. Air bag should
deploy.
3) If driver-side air bag does not deploy, disconnect 20-foot
wires from 12-volt power source. Remove air bag module from steering
wheel. See AIR BAG MODULE under REMOVAL & INSTALLATION. Carefully cut
off module connector bypassing contact reel. Splice both 20-foot wires
to air bag module wires, and tape spliced connections.
4) Reinstall air bag module to steering wheel. While at least
20 feet from vehicle, connect both wires to 12-volt power source to
trigger air bag inflator. Air bag should deploy.
:grin:

This is my concern! This dangerous device which requires so much care to disengage is somehow supposed to be OK for a little slip of a teenager who is only 5'1" and about 105 lbs? The seats don't adjust enough for the bag to hit where it is designed to. I've read that air bags can be deadly for kids and smaller adults - the height I saw was anyone under 5'4", 125 lbs - which makes me boarderline and my daughter well under. I have a freind whose child is the same size as my daughter, she was rear ended - no damage to the car but the air bag went off and she nearly ended up in surgery, had lacerations and abrasions to her face, a broken nose and is in physical therapy. The air bag did all that damage! I can't afford a fancy new car with adjustable airbags and haven't found anything older (pre airbag, as my car is) worth buying for her. Really this is a 'safety' device designed for men. While I'm all in favor of being as safe as possible - for a lot of us this 'safety' item is a real danger.

I guess you can't build one car for everyone.....it's unfortunate, but I expect you'll have to find something else built for smaller people. M/cycles have the same problems, and you buy what you fit on, which you're heavy/strong enough to control..

have you considered changing the seats? maybe you could retrofit a newer model seat in place of your current seat. just a thought.

Tinkerbell,

I hear your concerns in your message. You have very valid points. Particularly, when your thinking about a vehicle built in early 1990s for a family member. Airbags have come along way since then. I have looked on the web to see if statistics are available for accidents where airbags have caused further damage to the occupants but I can't find anything that doesn't come with extreme bias. One of the first articles I read is essentially a history of airbags on wikipedia. Nothing could be more biased than one individual's point of view. However, the article is well written and the author presents valid statements about the improvements in dual stage airbag systems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbag


Dual-stage airbags
"Many advanced airbag technologies are being developed to tailor airbag deployment to the severity of the crash, the size and posture of the vehicle occupant, belt usage, and how close that person is to the actual airbag. Many of these systems use multi-stage inflators that deploy less forcefully in stages in moderate crashes than in very severe crashes. Occupant sensing devices let the airbag control unit know if someone is occupying a seat adjacent to an airbag, the mass/weight of the person, whether a seat belt or child restraint is being used, and whether the person is forward in the seat and close to the airbag. Based on this information and crash severity information, the airbag is deployed at either a high force level, a less forceful level, or not at all.
Adaptive airbag systems may utilize multi-stage airbags to adjust the pressure within the airbag. The greater the pressure within the airbag, the more force the airbag will exert on the occupants as they come in contact with it. These adjustments allow the system to deploy the airbag with a moderate force for most collisions; reserving the maximum force airbag only for severest of collisions. Additional sensors to determine the location, weight or relative size of the occupants may also be used. Information regarding the occupants and the severity of the crash are used by the airbag control unit, to determine whether airbags should be suppressed or deployed, and if so, at various output levels."

"In 1998 dual front airbags were mandated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and de-powered, or second-generation airbags were also mandated. This was due to the injuries caused by first-generation airbags that were designed to be powerful enough to restrain people who were not wearing seat belts."

Perhaps you should look for a vehicle that is a newer model with a dual stage system? Airbags in the 1990s in the US were being designed to replace seatbelts and that seems to be where the problem lies. Airbags were not being developed as a piece of the entire overall safety system.

But of any manufacturer I would place my trust in Volvo. Perhaps a thread should be made in the forum with people's experience with their airbags deploying, severity of accident, vehicle model, year, injuries from airbags or not.... photos if they got 'em.

If she was my daughter, I'd buy it. We bought a 1988 240 for our oldest daughter (she's also petite) when she was 17 and never regretted it. Now, the 1988 does not have an airbag but we wanted her to get a 1993 with an air-bag but didn't have the funds at the time. Also our son walked away from a serious accident when he driving a 1984 240 wagon.
As far as the issue of size, I think the air-bag injury issue is less important with small young women who have strong bones and more important in small elderly woman with more brittle bones and in smaller children. On Manxman's comments about seat height there are controls under the 240 front seat that allow the seat to be raised up for a small person. Look carefully under the driver's seat and you'll find the levers.
The advice about air-bags being more dangerous unless it's a head-on collision is a bit dubious as the bags are designed to deploy in a head-on collision not in a side-impact or rear-ending. Also if it does deploy in a rear-ending the driver's head will be moving away from the air-bag hence injuries should be less. I agree that the 240 air-bag is old tech and was added to the 240 as an afterthought so it's not as good as the later 850/S70/S80 systems. It is a supplementary restraint system (SRS) so if your daughter wears a seat-belt at all times it should protect her. If she drives without a seat-belt and relies on the air bag to protect her, it won't.
Another issue in non-Volvos with air-bags is the design of the head restraints. Very few cars have head-restraints that protect the driver's neck and head. The air-bag injuries you describe to your friend's daughter could have been partly due to bad seat design.
If you are really worried about safety and have a limited budget I would recommend a 1995-7 Volvo 850 which has more safety features than the 240.

I've driven Volvos for over 25 years - mostly 240 series, so I'm well aware of their safety and features. My current car is a 82 240DL wagon which doesn't have air bags. I've bought the 91 244, it was too good a deal to pass up. (Not a spec of rust, runs beautifully, no leaks) If I can't disable the air bag I'll keep looking for a car a couple years older. My mechanic is over 6' tall and was badly burned by an air bag, he say he wouldn't want his daughter to have one. There is a possiblity that the bag is already disabled. The car needs to have the turn signal indicator switch replaced, normally this is a job I'd do myself but I've been warned not to mess with repair work on the steering column of a car w/air bags so I'm taking it in. Hoping that I'll be told it's disabled. We ALWAYS use seat belts, won't drive without. A newer car isn't an option, I'm on a newly single mom budget - we're talking under a $1000 here.

My mechanic told me that in many cars with airbags the seatbelt design is different - they aren't as effective alone so I am looking at replacing the seatbelt with an older pre-airbag belt.

2" wide seatbelts are more comfortable, spread the load better and cope with bigger ppl masses. Most cars these days only have 1 3/4" belts, which are OK IMO for average weight ppl only. Since no-one is average, it Always pays to have the wider belt. Old belts jam on retract and are a pain, though they may work ok when they have to. Price is not really a guide to quality, but read & understand the safety standards, & watch out for where it's made. BTW my car was $AUS600- @ 250,000km+ (dead odometer!) & for all the grief, and fuel costs, I still think it a good investment.

I doubt that an airbag will kill a smaller person, and even mild injury is better than serious injury, if it comes to the crunch. Volvo's have not had a fatality in Oz for some years, and I'm sure if there was a known problem,we'd have heard of it by now- especially if it was a V involved. There are no guarantees in accidents, there are probabilities and likelyhoods. Each one is different, and has it's own special quirks. Not everything can or should be allowed for. You have to do the best you can and trust that it will be reasonably ok, if the worst happens. If not, then that's unfortunate for the victims, but poo happens, as they say, & it can't be stopped.

It sounds like a nice car and hopefully it should work for you. If you want to do it, disabling the air-bag in the 240 is not a major operation as it was added as an afterthought. Replacing the steering wheel with an earlier model isn't difficult. I don't recall any difference between the 1986-1989 and the 1990-1993 (air-bag) seatbelts but I could be wrong.
Again with the air-bag horror stories, it's worthwhile asking for more details of the car and the accident. A co-worker of mine had a Nissan airbag deploy in an accident and she had minor burns from the sodium azide used in the propellant but was otherwise O.K. Did the mechanic have an accident in a Volvo 240?
FYI 850s are being offered for under $3000 these days.