Car Accidents: A Case Study

Today in the world, car accidents is the leading cause of injury and takes up the ninth cause of death globally. Deaths occur because of car accidents at an average of 1,200,000 people annually and injuries occur at an average of 50,000,000 (Population Reference Bureau, 2015). Past records show that, in 2012, the world’s death count was 55,300,000 people of which, car accidents took 2.27% that is 1,254,526 deaths. In 2013, there was an estimate of 5,419,000 car accidents (WHO, 2014). Over the years, statistics have shown that every 12 minutes a fatal car crash injury occurs (Concolle & Hollawell, 2015). Figure 1, shows a graph of decreasing death rates all over the world. It was not soon, until 1951, when Walter Linderer introduced airbags

In the 1940s-60s, after the increase in car count, airbags were viewed as a very significant and necessary part of a car (Population Reference Bureau, 2015). Nowadays, airbags are still valued and their setup price can go up to $2000-$3000. This price can differ depending on the model of the car and it takes into consideration inserting each airbag in the car (Cost Helper, 2015). For an ordinary citizen of any country especially of the LEDCs, this price is not so affordable. Thus, not everyone can provide themselves with the same safety level as others. Secondly, as the US and many other countries demand all their cars to have airbags, a driver whose airbags have deployed will be forced to reset them. Thus, he might not have the money to do so at that time and will need to use money that was meant to be used for something else. This would worsen the family’s lifestyle. Thirdly, since airbags cost is great, the cars that have the system would cost more than usual ones. People would then have to put in more money to buy one, which could however be used in some other way that could improve the family status (Detroit News, 2015). Fourthly, the accelerometer that detects the harsh fall in speed can at times send false signals to the inflating system and the airbags could deploy, which could cause an injury. Nonetheless, the economic harm brought by this is that, the driver has to reset them, which will cost an immense amount of money (Demand Media,