All-clear for depowered air bags

WASHINGTON: Air bags that could save children but reduce protection for adults are already on a few models and will be standard on most 1998 cars and trucks in the United States.

The so-called depowered bags inflate less forcefully than existing bags.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) authorized the bags last March as a way to minimize danger to children and small adults.

The government says most of the 33 adults and several of the 43 children killed so far by air bags might have been saved if bags were less forceful.

But regulators also warn that gentler bags could fail to save as many as 151 unbelted drivers and 280 unbelted passengers a year.

Ford Motor says it will have depowered bags on all 1998 models by October. Toyota says it will by early next year.