Airbags can be a really tricky topic, but they don’t have to be – unfortunately there is not too many clear cut guidelines to help safety technicians reach a solid conclusion, yet there are certainly many opinions!  Let’s break it down a little bit;

When would this normally be relevant?

Many commercial vehicles such as utes and single cab chassis vehicles have child transport as an afterthought.  Let’s be realistic, they serve a different purpose and are not desined with child safety in mind.  You’ve probably had someone come in with a Landcruiser Single Cab, Falcon or Commodore ute and wondered how it would go with a safety seat – well if it’s a newer vehicle, the airbags are definately going to be an issue to deal with.

Rearward Facing Seats

Always disable front airbags when a rearward facing seat is being installed to the vehicle’s seat with an airbag.  Always.  This is, and has shown to be lethal.  We cannot emphasise this enough.  Do not install a safety seat to any vehicle in rearward facing position without ensuring there are either no airbags in that position, or the airbags have been disabled.  Even if they have been disabled, let the parent/carer know the potential ramifications and ensure you put a caveat on the document they sign specifically labeling that you’ve checked with the owner that the airbags have been disabled – and then get them to sign it.

Forward Facing Seats

Unfortunately there is no data on this, and given the infinate number of factors involved it would be extremely difficult to attain any that would enable you to give a difinitive answer on what was safest for the child in this scenario.  The reality is that sometimes it’s best for the airbag to be enabled, and in other incidents it would have been better for the airbag to be disabled – there are so many factors involved that not even a panel of engineers would be able to give a difinitive outcome.  So as usual, the decision and responsibility is up to the parent/carer and your responsibility is to best inform them of the following;

1. Yes you are able to fit the child safety seat, in forward facing
2. No you can’t give any advice on whether it’s better to enable or disable the airbag in this configuration
   • In some cases it would be better to disable
   • In other cases it would be better to have had it enabled
   • The seat should be all the way back as far as possible into the vehicles seat, as far away from the airbag as possible
   • Always encourage the child to sit back in their seat, and not lean forward
3. The responsibility of the decision is the parent/carer
4. You will be placing a caveat on the installation document explaining all of the above

This caveat is important to place in your installation documentation that you get your client to sign so don’t forget to do this!

If this document hasn’t been clear enough, or you are still hesitating in some way then please get in contact with us in regards to your concern so we can address your concern directly, and also update this article because no doubt someone else will be wondering the same thing!

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