At first, I thought the answer is yes. However, it’s the other way around. It was supported by the advisory of the officials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that says children under the age of 13 should not be sitting in the front seat in front of an airbag. Asking why, here are the answers.
First, it was observed that children (when seated in the front) tend to do so many things like playing with the radio. Doing such activities keeps them off their seat and not in the proper position when an emergency should happen. Therefore, the airbag could not save them when they are not properly positioned. To support that, there really are kids that cannot afford to sit still longer than 30 seconds at a time.
Second, their size counts. For an airbag to safely protect you in cases of accidents, a proper position is required. That includes having the feet touch the floor and keeping the back against the seatback. When small children sit in front, they need to lean forward just to touch their feet on the floor. With that, they are out of the right position making the airbag unable to protect them fully.
The third is true not only for children. It is obvious that it is indeed safer to sit in the backseat because the most common crashes that happen are frontal. Meaning, it is indeed dangerous to sit in front. Also, the better part of sitting in the back is that you have in front of you more vehicle mass which would absorb the impact of a collision. This then saves you from getting injuries compared to the person in front.
The last reason is about the use of side airbags. Similar to the first reason, when children are not in a proper position during side crashes, the airbag could not protect them. When the side airbag detects that someone is leaning against the seatback edge (the place where the side airbag is installed), it deactivates. This would mean that no protection would be given to the person in the event that a side crash occurs.
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