The long road to safety

Car-makers' airbag objections are disingenuous

The road transport and highways ministry’s proposal to make it mandatory for vehicles that carry up to eight passengers to have six airbags has, predictably, met with protests from car manufacturers, especially those that make entry-level small cars. The car companies’ have offered three interconnected arguments against this proposal. They say the introduction of five extra airbags — a driver airbag has been compulsory since 2019 — will drive up costs, which in turn will crimp demand at a time when the sales have been near-stagnant and safety equipment ranks low on buyers’ priorities in any case. When set against