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There is little or no doubt that air bags save lives in accidents. Passenger side air bags are generally effective safety devices; however, in special cases there are damaging side effects. Damaging and unintended by-products of [passenger side] air bags include, but are not limited to, injuries such as abrasions, broken bones, and damaged knees. Passenger air bags are especially threatening to short people (generally under 4' 10”), to those who allow the passenger seat to be placed too close to an air bag, to various size children, and especially to rear-facing infants. Placing the passenger seat too close to an air bag can be classified as “misuse.” Misuse also include those who may place their feet on the dash, and then either lose, or have legs severely damaged when the air bag deploys. Even though air bags were designed to take into account as much of the population as possible, anomalies do exist.

Proposed is a computer chip-based, programmable, cruise-control system with memory (US patents applied for). Input means, such as a keypad, allows for cruise speeds to be pre-programmed by the operator, with the car moving or stopped. The proposed system has an anti-surge capability. This prevents the cruise-control from being engaged (or “resumed”), when current vehicle speed is beyond either a driver selected or default “delta” from the target speed. The system also has a spin reduction feature based on the ability to recognize wheel deceleration versus time. If an acceptable threshold is exceeded (i.e. the drive wheels break traction), the C3S/AS2R cuts back on the acceleration, until the system reaches equilibrium with predetermined and/or adaptable threshold(s).

We would like to discuss a set of unique concepts in active-occupant-restraint (airbag) systems which are unlike presently used airbags. Like present airbags, the concepts we will discuss are only designed to be deployed when vehicle sensors determine that the magnitude of a crash will imminently surpass a preset threshold. In other words, we are dealing with a state of a crash from which an occupant without an airbag is not likely to “walk-away”, a state of a crash after which a vehicle is not likely to be worth-while repairing, the type of a crash that we will refer to in this paper as a “catastrophic” crash, a “grievous” crash, to borrow from the dictionary. These concepts not only protect the front torso of an occupant, but also the back of the neck, and the sides of an individual body by actually enveloping her or him with a protective cushion.

This paper and its companion presentation deal with a set of concepts for reducing damage to occupants of vehicles engaged in catastrophic frontal, side-frontal, or in any form of “head-on” collision. The concepts are such that they do not come into play unless and until an eminent catastrophic situation occurs. These concepts are not designed to be deployed in cases where vehicle(s) are likely to remain in a state from which they can be repaired. The concepts in question are only designed to be activated in catastrophic situations that cannot be reversed, in other words, when a situation reaches a point of no return.