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Airlines should install shoulder harnesses and air bags to save lives, say
researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Guohua Li and Susan Baker
looked at pathology reports for 2544 people killed in crashes on US soil in two
years, 1980 and 1990. Most died from multiple injuries which extra safety
equipment wouldn’t have prevented. But 18 per cent had a single injury, the
researchers note in the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and
Pathology (vol 18, p 265). Li believes airbags and shoulder harnesses could
have prevented many of these deaths. “It’s not that expensive to install the
equipment,” he says.