The performance of occupant protection systems, especially air bags, is of high interest to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Since 1972, the NHTSA has operated a Special Crash Investigations (SCI) program, which provides the agency with the flexibility to acquire detailed engineering information quickly on high visibility traffic crashes of special interest. The SCI collects in-depth crash data on new and rapidly changing technologies in real world crashes. NHTSA uses the data collected in this program and others to evaluate rulemaking actions. The data are also used by the automotive industry and other organizations to evaluate the performance of motor vehicle occupant protection systems such as air bags.

This paper presents information from NHTSA's SCI program concerning crash investigations on air bag equipped vehicles. The paper provides information on data collection and findings in the NHTSA sponsored air bag crash investigations, updating and expanding findings from the 17th Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV) paper “Air Bag Crash Investigations” by Chidester and Roston [Ref. 3]. Topics include air bag-related fatalities as a whole and by certification status;​ physical characteristics of occupants fatally injured by a deploying air bag;​ and an overview of special case studies available on NHTSA’s world wide web site.