Airbag Powder Inhalation Kills Man Two Weeks After Accident

Airbag Powder Inhalation Kills Man Two Weeks After Accident
The airbag has been with us for a long time now, so much so that we practically demand the protection it offers us these days. As its name would suggest it’s just a big pillow of air to protect us in case of an impact so that we don’t smash our head and limbs on the car’s hard bits.

But is it really air? Of course not. We’re not going to bore you with the details, but the general idea is that a number of chemical reactions have to take place in order for the airbag to fill up with nitrogen gas, with the byproduct being alkaline silicate (glass).

This comes in a very fine powdered form that was previously supposed to be harmless. However, one man in Scotland was killed by it. Ronald Smith of Scotland was involved in a six-car accident in 2010. After the driver airbag in his Vauxhall Insignia ripped on shards of glass he was hit in the face by white powder and immediately started feeling the effects.

The airbag that saved his life also took him, as two weeks later he was hospitalized and soon after died of bronchial pneumonia.

The results of the forensic coroner were only now announced, and they found that Ronald “died as a result of this incident and more pointedly because of the explosion of his airbag, and this death should be recorded as misadventure.”

His widowed wife June said: “I knew from the very beginning that it was the airbag. I just knew but other people would look at me as if to say, ‘don’t be silly. Ronnie told me about the white powder straight away. He said there was so much of it he couldn’t see. It’s just not fair that you have to lose someone because of something that is meant to save a life.”

  Via Daily Record
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