KEY POINTS:
A car careering side-on into a pole as a slurred voice with subtitles describes potentially avoidable brain injuries will feature in shock advertising to persuade motorists to demand head-protecting airbags.
Land Transport NZ and the Accident Compensation Corporation expect that a new television advertisement due to start screening tomorrow will disturb some viewers in its depiction of the debilitating effects of brain injuries from side-impact road smashes.
But their campaign for more vehicles to be equipped with head-protecting side airbags has won enthusiastic support from the Brain Injury Association, whose members were given special previews.
The advertisement may not be as gruesome as some others, particularly those used to discourage drink-driving, as an airbag springs out to protect a crash-test dummy in the car driver's seat.
Even so, association president John Clough believes the accompanying heavily slurred voice-over gives a chillingly accurate description of the effect of brain injuries on drivers unprotected by airbags.
He was saddened by the death of a friend's father a fortnight ago in a side-on car crash in which a head-protecting airbag might have offered a reasonable chance of survival.
"You can imagine that when you hit something in front you've got all the engine, all the crumple zones, but from a side impact what have you got apart from side intrusion bars?" he said.
"There's not a lot of protection there,particularly when your head flicks to hit the window - if you've got a nice airbag that suddenly deploys there, you can see how much safer you are."
Although fewer than 1 per cent of cars in the New Zealand fleet are estimated to have side airbags, safety authorities are encouraged that at least half of new vehicles come equipped with them.
Mr Clough said side airbags remained an optional extra for some vehicles, and he hoped the campaign would boost consumer pressure to make them standard items.
Motor Industry Association chief executive Perry Kerr said side airbags generally cost about $500 to $600 when offered as optional extras.
Side impacts account for about 20 per cent of car crashes in New Zealand and caused 49 deaths and more than 1600 injuries in 2006.
ACC figures show that 29 per cent of claims from motor crashes are related to head injuries, adding more than $8 million a year to its costs.
Automobile Association technical services general manager Stella Stocks said her organisation was pleased that side airbags were becoming a feature of more affordable vehicles.
