Buckle up; it’s the law” can be seen on almost every U.S. highway. Everybody knows seatbelts save lives. And then it was anti-lock brakes.

People were running out to buy cars and sport utility vehicles with anti-lock brakes, even though many didn’t understand or know how to use them.

Now air bags and the actual safety they provide seems to be the question in many drivers’ minds. All 1998 cars must come with a driver-side airbag. But the question is, do they work effectively for everyone?

Recently, there have been reports that driver- and passenger-side airbags may be dangerous for short people and children in car seats.

To help eliminate this problem there has been a proposal to put an on-and-off switch on airbags.

An airbag isn’t like a lamp. You never know when you’re going to get into a head-on collision. The suggestion of an on-and-off switch shouldn’t even be a topic of discussion.

If they cannot be active all the time, then maybe engineers should go back to the drawing board and make new improvements.

Before a decision can be made on the future of airbags, research needs to be done on how many lives have been saved by airbags compared to the number of people airbags have killed.

If an on-and-off switch for airbags were approved, people who drive other people’s cars would have to make a another adjustment when getting into the car.

And chances are, everyone is not going to remember to look at the switch to make sure the airbag is on or off. With airbags, it shouldn’t be an option. Because they are now required on all new cars, they should save everybody’s lives, not just work for certain people. If there are kinks in the product, go back and fix them. Even Atanasoff’s computer wasn’t invented overnight.