The Truth About Airbags Airbags began being installed into automobiles around the mid-1980’s (Dowd 136). Since their introduction, airbags have been present in 2.6 million accidents (Carbonara 132). In those accidents they have saved over thirty-four hundred people (Carbonara 132). The shocking fact is that more than one hundred and twenty people have died from the airbag itself. Of those one hundred and twenty, sixty-six were under the age of twelve (Carbonara 132). Because airbags have been more harmful than helpful to children and small adults, automakers are striving to make airbags safer and smarter. Robert Sanders was d