Airbag safety devices

[GTFDLt61 Forum Member Find all posts View Profile Close GTFDLt61]

Believe me gang, after the fallout from my last question, I'm almost afraid to ask this here, but here goes...

What does everyone like for airbag safety? I've seen the metal steering wheel covers, I've seen the 'nets', what are the pros and cons?

Russ...

[lutan1 FIGJAM Find all posts View Profile Close lutan1]

Our dept. in Australia is using the Holmatro Secunet.

We decided on this as it was easy to use, easy to store and carry and we liked the "soft" protection it provided.

We've heard that the "bagbuster" was being trialled by another service in Australia and they hated it as it had no flex in it, so when it caught a bag, the steel bracket clamped to the wheel, transferred all the power and pressure back into the car, causing it shake and jolt around like a mini bomb had gone off! (We did not trial this device- we trialled the Secunet and liked it.)

Believe me, we had a lot of debate over purchasing these devices. Members kept pushing to stay out of the bags deployment path, dont hinder the deployment, don't place anything over the deploying bag, etc.

We came to the conclusion to purchase because we felt it unsafe to work around an restricted bag, but we still follow the same rules as listed above.

[fire-inst Forum Member Find all posts View Profile Close fire-inst]

The safest way to deal with an air bag is to stay out of the deployment path. These devices that you are talking about are all man made and we all know anything man made has the possibility of failure, not only from mechanical failure but what if it is not attached correctly. I saw or read somewhere that a national organization (I forget which one) was recommending not to use these devices due to the possible failure and the injuries that can be caused or made more severe from them being ejected into a rescuer or a patient.