Air bags — Kansas Permit Test

Air bags are supplemental restraints designed to work best in combination with safety belts, and should never be relied on in place of a belt.

The word supplemental is the whole point. The bag adds to the belt and does not replace it.

Air bags are supplemental restraints and are designed to work best in combination with safety belts.

Air bags deploy only once and deflate quickly after impact, so they will not be helpful during a secondary collision.

Crashes often involve a second hit. By then the bag is empty and the belt is all you have.

Since air bags deploy only once and deflate quickly after impact, they will not be helpful during a secondary collision.

Front air bags are designed to deploy in frontal and near-frontal collisions, and are not designed to deploy in side impact, rear impact or rollover crashes.

Most of the ways a car gets hit are not covered. That is the gap the belt fills.

Front air bags are designed to deploy in frontal and near-frontal collisions. They are not designed to deploy in side impact, rear impact, or rollover crashes.

In most vehicles a Kansas driver should adjust the seat so at least 10 inches is between the center of the chest and the center of the steering wheel.

The bag comes out fast and hard. Ten inches is the distance at which it catches you instead of hitting you.

you should adjust your seat so at least 10 inches is between the center of your chest and the center of the steering wheel.

To direct an air bag at the chest instead of the face, a Kansas driver should raise the seat or use a cushion and adjust the steering wheel downward.

The chest can take the blow; the face cannot. Aiming the wheel down is what changes where it lands.

To direct the air bag at your chest instead of your face, raise your seat or use a cushion and/or adjust the steering wheel downward.

A Kansas driver should place their hands on the outside of the steering wheel and never across it where the air bag deploys.

Hands crossing the wheel are thrown into the face when the bag opens. Keeping them outside keeps them out of the way.

You should place your hands on the outside of the steering wheel, never across the steering wheel where the air bag deploys.

Children age 12 and under should sit in the rear seat of a Kansas vehicle to avoid injury from an air bag in the event of a crash.

An air bag built for an adult breaks a child's neck. The back seat is out of its reach.

Children age 12 and under should sit in the rear seat of the vehicle to avoid injury from an air bag in the event of a crash.

A Kansas driver should never secure a child in the right front passenger side, especially where the vehicle has an air bag, because a deploying air bag could hurt the child.

The front passenger seat is the worst place in the car for a child. The bag is aimed at where their head sits.

Never secure a child in the right front passenger side, especially if your vehicle has an air bag.

A passenger air bag on-off switch in Kansas is there to disable the front passenger air bag so a child age 12 or under can be transported in the right front passenger seat.

Some trucks have no back seat at all. The switch is what makes the front seat survivable for a child.

The purpose of the switch in the off position is to disable the front passenger air bag to transport a child age 12 or under in the right front passenger seat.

What are air bags designed to work best with?

Safety belts, worn properly. The word supplemental is the whole point. The bag adds to the belt and does not replace it. Kansas Driving Handbook, p.27: “Air bags are supplemental restraints and are designed to work best in combination with safety belts.”