Tot's decapitation heightens air bag fears
By Bob Fick, Associated Press writer
BOISE, Idaho -- A parking lot fender-bender that decapitated a 1-year-old girl prompted a federal investigation and drew even more attention yesterday to the potential dangers of air bags.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration dispatched a team from Los Angeles to investigate Tuesday night's accident.
Police said 1-year-old Alexandra Greer was in a forward-facing child safety seat when her mother, Rebecca Blackman, 21, rear-ended a car that had just entered a mall parking lot.
The impact deployed the Volkswagen Jetta's passenger-side air bag, which deployed at 200 mph, decapitating the child and throwing her head through the broken door window onto the parking lot.
"It otherwise would have been a minor traffic accident," police Lt. Tim Rosenvall told The Idaho Statesman.
Pre-Thanksgiving shoppers shivered against the 28-degree weather as police tried to console toddler's hysterical mother.
"If it weren't for the air bag, no one would have been hurt," said Marianne Keebey, a family friend.
Air bags were previously blamed for the deaths of 31 children and 20 adults -- mostly smaller women -- in low-speed crashes they otherwise could have survived.
As a result, the NHTSA is requiring strongly worded warning labels about air bags in new cars and is considering other changes, such as bags that deploy less forcefully.
Motorists are being told that children 12 and under can be killed by a passenger-side air bag and should ride with seat belts in the rear seat. Small adults and children who sit in front of an air bag should wear seat belts, and parents should never put a baby in a rear-facing child seat in front of an air bag.
Some safety advocates want laws forbidding children riding in the front seat, as Germany has done.
"Certainly it is something that could be done at the state level," Joan Claybrook, a former head of the NHTSA, said in Washington, D.C., where she is president of the consumer group Public Citizen.
"It is the most important thing for children, whether it is an air-bag car or non-air-bag car, that the child be in the back seat," she said.