It’s easy to forget, while enjoying the smooth-riding comfort of a well-made automobile, that from a physics standpoint, every loose or semi-secure object inside can become a harmful projectile in a collision. We can thank the constant rule of force = mass x acceleration for that, along with the ballistics involved in fast-deploying airbags intended to prevent injuries in the first place.
We learn from a recent Facebook Reel how dangerous some simple interior decorations can be when an airbag is involved. The clip from automotive creator Troy Watts on his Real Crushin’ Florida channel shows viewers how lightweight decorations affixed to the center of a steering wheel could turn deadly.
“A lot of firefighters and EMTs reached out to me after my last video and said, 'You have to show what happens when people bedazzle their airbag on their steering wheel,'” Watts said in the video that’s been viewed more than 377,000 times.
Bedazzled Steering Wheel: Projectile Problems
A stop at Dollar General produced a bag of decorative plastic stars and a package of thumbtacks, inexpensive substitutes for the rhinestones and faux gems that have become common on customized steering wheels shared across social media. To help visualize where the objects might travel, he also positioned balloons throughout the cabin at roughly head height for occupants of different sizes.
