There are some things that serve the wise well, yet which are overall detractors for society. Passive safety systems are something I’m ambivalent about simply because they insulate the unwise from the consequence of their poor decision-making skills. Leave it up to me, and I’m gonna remove most “safety features”, and force these people to think about what they’re doing. It’s like ABS on ice; yeah, it helps the neophyte driver, but when you’re an experienced driver who knows how to pulse the brakes properly, it actually detracts from being able to control the car.

Two things are going on, here: One, you’re enabling dumbasses to survive really stupid behavior, and I would argue that the long-term effect of that on the gene pool is entirely inimical. Two, you’re encouraging said dumbasses to do really stupid things, because they’re so certain that they’ll survive the wreck due to the safety gear, and that they will then almost certainly kill uninvolved third parties. I remember an accident a few years back where a couple of dumb and drunk teens stole a high-performance car, and managed to wreck it in such a way that they killed an older couple who were sleeping in their bed on the second story of their home… Leaving some other teens orphans. The drivers of the stolen vehicle survived without injury. Due, of course, to the “safety gear” installed in that high-end car.

It’s a double-edged sword. The other point, too, is that the air bags often cause more injury than they prevent–I’ve got a friend who’s permanently injured because the airbags in his brand-new Mitsubishi activated for no real reason, and caused him to hit a median barrier after the bags deployed–Which was when he got injured. He was basically just driving down the road, the airbags activated when he was going about forty-fifty miles an hour, and the rest ensued.

Funny thing about that–Mitsubishi settled on that one before it even got to court. The insurance guys went to them for info, they looked into it, and “Here’s slightly under a million dollars, and a non-disclosure agreement…”.

I don’t think anyone even knows what the hell happened–My friend has no memory of the accident, just the airbags activating. The investigation showed no reason for them to activate, either–No skid marks, no signs of another car hitting him, nothing. Just… “FOOOM”, and then he hit the median barrier right after the bags deflated.

Heck, I remember the original seat belt campaigns from the mid’60s. When you buckled up, you created an invisible zone of force that protected you from any possible injury. When people asked why, if seat belts were so wonderful, why did we need air bags? The excuse was that you couldn’t forget (or refuse) them, and the belts would be redundant anyway.

Of course, most states have laws mandating seat belts whether they’re useful or not, and none require air bags as far as I know… probably for the convenience of the “revenue enhancement officers” who can easily see if you’re wearing your bondage gear, but it can be difficult to tell if a car has functioning air bags without detonating them to see.