Airbags as a form of “supplemental restraint” have been around for decades. The first domestic vehicle to offer one as an option was the 1973 Oldsmobile Toronado, and General Motors called it the “Air Cushion Restraint System.” By the 1980s, airbags were becoming even more common.
Acura published a small pamphlet specifically about its airbags in 1987 when the first-generation Legend coupe debuted. It said, “The airbag can only deploy in a severe frontal impact that generates more force than a 10-mph barrier crash. The supplemental restraint system (SRS) sensors are located in the front corners of the car and beneath the dashboard. To prevent inadvertent deployment, both the front and a dash sensor must detect an impact before the bag is inflated. The airbag inflates within 30-40 milliseconds of the impact, cushions the driver, and then instantly deflates.”
About a decade after that document was published, airbags (for both the driver and front passenger) became mandatory in the United States for all new cars and light trucks on September 1, 1998 as a result of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991. Effectively, beginning with the 1999 model year, all new cars had “dual” airbags. The legal move was a key effort to improve safety — and it worked.
Along with that ruling, airbag-equipped vehicles became targets for airbag theft. In fact, the growing trend was so widespread that some referred to it as the “stereo phenomenon” of the decade. By the early 2000s, there were over 75,000 airbags being stolen annually and sold on the black market. Twenty years have passed since that was announced, so is airbag theft still a thing?
According to a recent story by MotorWeek, it is, albeit scaled back just slightly. The National Insurance Crime Bureau says that about 50,000 airbags are stolen each year. Today, most modern cars have at least six airbags (front, side-curtain, and seat-mounted), and some can have 10 or more. Even some motorcycles are equipped with airbags.
All of this is to segue into something interesting I recently came across in a magazine. It was an advertisement for a contraption produced by the same manufacturer as The Club (a steering wheel lock that prevented the wheel from turning) that was designed to prevent airbag theft. See for yourself!
The Club Steering Wheel and Air Bag Shield was designed to be used in addition to The Club.
As a visual deterrent, it definitely would have done the trick, but I wonder how well it actually sold. The Club itself was available for $59.95, and The Shield was $39.95.
Are you interested in more about automotive safety chat? In a future story, I think I’ll dive into the novelty of the famous “mouse-track” automatic seatbelts that were widely used as a passive-restraint safety measure during the 1980s-90s.
