News from April 17th reports a car accident involving a mother holding her child while driving. What would you do if a child seated on an airbag starts crying incessantly during a drive? A mother from Changshu, Jiangsu chose to hold her child while driving.
The Traffic Management Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security recently revealed that on March 4, 2024, at approximately 2:37 PM, a white car in Changshu, Jiangsu suddenly veered to the right and violently crashed into the bridge railing. The accident resulted in damage to the vehicle and the bridge railing. A toddler over one year old in the car suffered facial injuries.
Upon investigation, it was found that the child's mother, Ms. Wang, was returning home from her parents' house. The child, seated in a car safety seat in the back, started to cry incessantly. Thinking they were not far from home and that it would be safe, she took the child out of the safety seat and held him in her lap.
Later, as it was raining and the car windows fogged up, Ms. Wang reached to wipe the mist, causing the vehicle to veer off and crash into a guardrail. The front airbags deployed upon impact, striking the child in the face and causing injury, fortunately without serious harm.
Traffic police remind everyone that children should ride in the back seat and use a child safety seat or, depending on their height and age, a suitable booster seat along with seat belts.
Some parents believe that holding their child while driving is a demonstration of love, unaware that in the event of an accident, the physically delicate child becomes nothing but a "human shield" or "airbag" for the parent!
Modern airbags in cars commonly deploy using a combination of ignited potassium nitrate and sodium azide for rapid inflation. Interestingly, potassium nitrate is also a primary component of gunpowder and explosives.
The speed at which airbags deploy is astonishingly fast, reaching up to 300 km/h. If deployed at such velocity, they could cause significant harm upon impact with the human body, highlighting the critical importance of automotive safety measures.
