Sheri Shepherd doesn't remember hearing the 170 decibel explosion as her air bag inflated. She doesn't remember feeling the air bag as it was propelled into her face and chest at 220 mph.
She does remember the horrific crash two weeks ago that caused her to spend the evening of her fifth wedding anniversary being transported to the hospital strapped to a paramedic's gurney.
The traffic light was green as Shepherd was driving through an intersection coming from a Los Osos High School football game, when a teen driving a Ford Expedition ran the red light and came barreling into the intersection.
The Expedition smashed into the driver's side of Shepherd's two-week-old 2007 Jeep Wrangler and spun it with such force that it hit another car and started spinning in the opposite direction.
Within the blink of an eye (0.05 seconds), Shepherd's air bag deployed and created a safety cushion that prevented her from crashing into the steering wheel.
Simultaneously, a passenger-side air bag exploded into the body of her 13-year-old daughter, Haley. And as the car careened and spun out of control, Shepherd's husband, Michael, somehow found the presence of mind to reach over from the back seat and pull up the emergency brake to bring the Jeep to a screeching halt.
The force of the air bag left both Shepherd and her daughter with impact burns on their arms, sprained thumbs and bruised noses. Since the Jeep did not have side-impact air bags, Shepherd's left arm and leg were crushed into the door by the force of the collision, and she suffered significant tissue damage.
But she credits the air bags for preventing things from being much, much worse.
"If my nose was only bruised from hitting the air bag, I can imagine what would have happened if my face would have hit the steering wheel instead," Shepherd said.
It was a dreary, rain-soaked Valentine's Day back in 1998 when Joel Garcia was driving his 1992 Lexus through the Cajon Pass with his wife Carine beside him.
A couple of car lengths in front of him, Garcia noticed a car that was clearly losing control as it started to fishtail across the water-slicked lanes.
Instinctively, Garcia moved his car as far to the right as possible to try to avoid the out-of-control vehicle, but it was too late. As the hydroplaning vehicle transitioned from a fishtail into a full spin, Garcia was unable to avoid crashing into the side of it.
Garcia remembers feeling as if he had been punched in the chest and chin when his air bag deployed. He remembers thinking that the car was on fire, as the white effluent dust-like particles, which are used to lubricate the air bag when it goes off, filled the vehicle.
And in the days before passenger-side air bags became mandatory, he remembers that he was thankful that his wife Carine had been OK.
As of the vehicle year 1989, driver's side air bags became required equipment on all U.S. manufactured vehicles. In addition, all cars manufactured as of 1998 are required to have dual front air bags.
In 1951, in the tiny town of Newport, Pa., John W. Hetrick invented the first automobile air bag. Shepherd, Garcia and nearly 3,000 people annually may be around to tell their stories today because of his foresight and ingenuity.
Michelle Groh-Gordy is the owner of InterActive! Traffic School Online at www.trafficinteractive.com , and writes a syndicated weekly column on driving for the publications of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group.
