Honda is Safteying it Up
I'm as biased as Fox news.....
Anyhow, Honda has created an airbag system for their Goldwing cruiser motorcycle. Who would have thought: an airbag for a two wheeler? The footage does show evidence that a body crashing into an airbag seems to be far less detrimental than a body thrown into a car whether a helment is present on the driver or not. Honda has experimented with other unusual saftey designs before. One of which was designed in regard to pedestrain accidents with automobiles. This is why many Honda have less sloping hood lines than other automobile makers.
We'll see how the motorbike community react to this old but proven idea.
posted by Keith Mck @ 1:32 PM
4 Comments:
Will it really work without the added confines of left and right walls and a seatbelt? In a car, you're surrounded on all six cubic sides (left, right, back, front, up, down) by the car itself. With the motorbike, you still have front and down ... but left, right, up, and back are all pretty much open air. The motorist is going to hit the airbag and now, instead of his chest being splintered to pieces on impact, he is going to bounce off of the airbag like a trampoline and go flying into the street directly behind him.
- Ryan
These airbags will first be placed in cruisers (larger bikes intended for long trips). And most of these cruisers have seatbelts I believe, so that would take care of the six cubic sieds idea. The seatbelt would ensure a direct hit into the airbag instead of the passenger flying sideways or in some other angle upon inpact into the airbag. But then that brings up the problem that the driver will be attached to bike at all time during the accident, and this is a farily heavy bike. So the question is would you rather bounce off teh airbag and land 50 fee away or slide along with the bike on concrete?
Which means I have to ask, "Do most people who drive cruisers actually buckle up? Or do they not, for the very same safety concern you just voiced -- that they'd rather separate from the motorcycle than be dragged along with it?"
If they're not actually wearing the seatbelt, then we can't justify the airbag the way you did. We're back to the drawing board of "the airbag is launching them 50 feet backwards into the path of oncoming motor vehicles."
Maybe this just reinforces the idea that motorcycles are dangerous, period, and that Honda's investment of motorcycle R&D funds into airbag research might not pay off in the end.
- Ryan
From looking at the footage, it does not seem tha tthe dummy was wearing a seatbelt, which propelled him into the air upon impact to the airbag. However, I really do think that having both the airbag and the seatbelt would be effective in preventing injuries along with wearing a helment. But in the end, it does seem like if you do slack off and forget one of them, it might be more detrimental than helpful. Its kinda like making a cloning vector. You know you're suppose to add the more distinctive epitope and the histidine tag. But who adds both? even though add one may not be as effective as including both.
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