title: Darrell Hammond

text: In 2015 Hammond revived his Trump impression on "SNL", after Taran Killam's attempt failed to gain public interest. The following year he returned to New York after five years, expecting that with Trump having received the Republican presidential nomination that year, he would be appearing on the show more in the fall. When Alec Baldwin replaced him, he fell into a deep depression and was prescribed Antabuse and a beta blocker to prevent a relapse of his addiction issues. Hammond and his girlfriend eventually moved back to Los Angeles, where reminders of Baldwin's Trump impression were less advertised.


title: Darrell Hammond

text: In the late 1980s, Hammond said that he worked briefly as a stand-up comedian on Premier Cruise Line ships. One evening, while the ship was docked in the Bahamas, Hammond says he visited a restaurant, where he consumed the equivalent of 16 shots of rum. He claimed that a man repeatedly asked him throughout the evening to take a dollar bill with trace amounts of cocaine on it. When he left the bar to use the restroom, the man followed him into the stall and told him, "I think you should take this with you." Believing he was about to be mugged, he relented, and the man placed the bill inside Hammond's pocket. Local police were waiting outside the restroom and quickly arrested him. According to Hammond, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration later told him that the episode had been a setup, and that local authorities regularly entrap American tourists; he spent a weekend in jail. Hammond was released after his father traveled to the Bahamas and paid $3,000 for his son's release.


title: Darrell Hammond

text: Hammond first publicly mentioned his incarceration in the Bahamas as a guest on a 1998 episode of the radio show "Loveline"; and again when he returned to "Loveline" in 2000 and 2004, as well as during an appearance on the "Opie & Anthony" show in 2012.


The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; ) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signatories) to the Geneva Convention of 1949 and its Additional Protocols of 1977 (Protocol I, Protocol II) and 2005 have given the ICRC a mandate to protect victims of international and internal armed conflicts. Such victims include war wounded persons, prisoners, refugees, civilians, and other non-combatants.


title: International Committee of the Red Cross

text: The ICRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, along with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and 192 National Societies. It is the oldest and most honoured organization within the movement and one of the most widely recognized organizations in the world, having won three Nobel Peace Prizes (in 1917, 1944, and 1963).


text: Up until the middle of the 19th century, there were no organized and well-established army nursing systems for casualties and no safe and protected institutions to accommodate and treat those who were wounded on the battlefield. In June 1859, the Swiss businessman Henry Dunant travelled to Italy to meet French emperor Napoléon III with the intention of discussing difficulties in conducting business in Algeria, at that time occupied by France. When he arrived in the small Italian town of Solferino on the evening of 24 June, he witnessed the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino, an engagement in the Second Italian War of Independence. In a single day, about 40,000 soldiers on both sides died or were left wounded on the field. Henry Dunant was shocked by the terrible aftermath of the battle, the suffering of the wounded soldiers, and the near-total lack of medical attendance and basic care. He completely abandoned the original intent of his trip and for several days he devoted himself to helping with the treatment and care for the wounded. He succeeded in organizing an overwhelming level of relief assistance by motivating the local population to aid without discrimination. Back in his home in Geneva, he decided to write a book titled "A Memory of Solferino" which he published with his own money in 1862. He sent copies of the book to leading political and military figures throughout Europe. In addition to penning a vivid description of his experiences in Solferino in 1859, he explicitly advocated the formation of national voluntary relief organizations to help nurse wounded soldiers in the case of war. In addition, he called for the development of international treaties to guarantee the neutrality and protection of those wounded on the battlefield as well as medics and field hospitals.


text: On 9 February 1863 in Geneva, Henry Dunant founded the "Committee of the Five" (together with four other leading figures from well-known Geneva families) as an investigatory commission of the Geneva Society for Public Welfare. Their aim was to examine the feasibility of Dunant's ideas and to organize an international conference about their possible implementation. The members of this committee, aside from Dunant himself, were Gustave Moynier, lawyer and chairman of the Geneva Society for Public Welfare; physician Louis Appia, who had significant experience working as a field surgeon; Appia's friend and colleague Théodore Maunoir, from the Geneva Hygiene and Health Commission; and Guillaume-Henri Dufour, a Swiss Army general of great renown. Eight days later, the five men decided to rename the committee to the "International Committee for Relief to the Wounded". In October (26–29) 1863, the international conference organized by the committee was held in Geneva to develop possible measures to improve medical services on the battlefield. The conference was attended by 36 individuals: eighteen official delegates from national governments, six delegates from other non-governmental organizations, seven non-official foreign delegates, and the five members of the International Committee. The states and kingdoms represented by official delegates were Grand Duchy of Baden, Kingdom of Bavaria, Second French Empire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Kingdom of Hanover, Grand Duchy of Hesse, Kingdom of Italy, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Austrian Empire, Kingdom of Prussia, Russian Empire, Kingdom of Saxony, United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, and Spanish Empire. Among the proposals written in the final resolutions of the conference, adopted on 29 October 1863, were:


text: Only one year later, the Swiss government invited the governments of all European countries, as well as the United States, Brazil, and Mexico, to attend an official diplomatic conference. Sixteen countries sent a total of twenty-six delegates to Geneva. On 22 August 1864, the conference adopted the first Geneva Convention "for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field". Representatives of 12 states and kingdoms signed the convention:


text: The convention contained ten articles, establishing for the first time legally binding rules guaranteeing neutrality and protection for wounded soldiers, field medical personnel, and specific humanitarian institutions in an armed conflict. Furthermore, the convention defined two specific requirements for recognition of a national relief society by the International Committee:


text: Directly following the establishment of the Geneva Convention, the first national societies were founded in Belgium, Denmark, France, Oldenburg, Prussia, Spain, and Württemberg. Also in 1864, Louis Appia and Charles van de Velde, a captain of the Dutch Army, became the first independent and neutral delegates to work under the symbol of the Red Cross in an armed conflict. Three years later in 1867, the first International Conference of National Aid Societies for the Nursing of the War Wounded was convened.


text: Also in 1867, Henry Dunant was forced to declare bankruptcy due to business failures in Algeria, partly because he had neglected his business interests during his tireless activities for the International Committee. The controversy surrounding Dunant's business dealings and the resulting negative public opinion, combined with an ongoing conflict with Gustave Moynier, led to Dunant's expulsion from his position as a member and secretary. He was charged with fraudulent bankruptcy and a warrant for his arrest was issued. Thus, he was forced to leave Geneva and never returned to his home city.


text: In the following years, national societies were founded in nearly every country in Europe. The project resonated well with patriotic sentiments that were on the rise in the late-nineteenth-century, and national societies were often encouraged as signifiers of national moral superiority. In 1876, the committee adopted the name "International Committee of the Red Cross" (ICRC), which is still its official designation today. Five years later, the American Red Cross was founded through the efforts of Clara Barton. More and more countries signed the Geneva Convention and began to respect it in practice during armed conflicts. In a rather short period of time, the Red Cross gained huge momentum as an internationally respected movement, and the national societies became increasingly popular as a venue for volunteer work.


text: When the first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1901, the Norwegian Nobel Committee opted to give it jointly to Henry Dunant and Frédéric Passy, a leading international pacifist. More significant than the honour of the prize itself, the official congratulation from the International Committee of the Red Cross marked the overdue rehabilitation of Henry Dunant and represented a tribute to his key role in the formation of the Red Cross. Dunant died nine years later in the small Swiss health resort of Heiden. Only two months earlier his long-standing adversary Gustave Moynier had also died, leaving a mark in the history of the committee as its longest-serving President ever.


text: In 1906, the 1864 Geneva Convention was revised for the first time. One year later, the Hague Convention X, adopted at the Second International Peace Conference in The Hague, extended the scope of the Geneva Convention to naval warfare. Shortly before the beginning of the First World War in 1914, 50 years after the foundation of the ICRC and the adoption of the first Geneva Convention, there were already 45 national relief societies throughout the world. The movement had extended itself beyond Europe and North America to Central and South America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, El Salvador, Uruguay, Venezuela), Asia (the Republic of China, Japan, Korea, Siam), and Africa (South Africa).


text: With the outbreak of World War I, the ICRC found itself confronted with enormous challenges which it could only handle by working closely with the national Red Cross societies. Red Cross nurses from around the world, including the United States and Japan, came to support the medical services of the armed forces of the European countries involved in the war. On 15 October 1914, immediately after the start of the war, the ICRC set up its International Prisoners-of-War (POW) Agency, which had about 1,200 mostly volunteer staff members by the end of 1914. By the end of the war, the Agency had transferred about 20 million letters and messages, 1.9 million parcels, and about 18 million Swiss francs in monetary donations to POWs of all affected countries. Furthermore, due to the intervention of the Agency, about 200,000 prisoners were exchanged between the warring parties, released from captivity and returned to their home country. The organizational card index of the Agency accumulated about 7 million records from 1914 to 1923, each card representing an individual prisoner or missing person. The card index led to the identification of about 2 million POWs and the ability to contact their families, as part of the Restoring Family Links effort of the organization. The complete index is on loan today from the ICRC to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva. The right to access the index is still strictly restricted to the ICRC.


text: During the entire war, the ICRC monitored warring parties' compliance with the Geneva Conventions of the 1907 revision and forwarded complaints about violations to the respective country. When chemical weapons were used in this war for the first time in history, the ICRC vigorously protested against this new type of warfare. Even without having a mandate from the Geneva Conventions, the ICRC tried to ameliorate the suffering of civil populations. In territories that were officially designated as "occupied territories," the ICRC could assist the civilian population on the basis of the Hague Convention's "Laws and Customs of War on Land" of 1907. This convention was also the legal basis for the ICRC's work for prisoners of war. In addition to the work of the International Prisoner-of-War Agency as described above this included inspection visits to POW camps. A total of 524 camps throughout Europe were visited by 41 delegates from the ICRC until the end of the war.


text: Between 1916 and 1918, the ICRC published a number of postcards with scenes from the POW camps. The pictures showed the prisoners in day-to-day activities such as the distribution of letters from home. The intention of the ICRC was to provide the families of the prisoners with some hope and solace and to alleviate their uncertainties about the fate of their loved ones. After the end of the war, the ICRC organized the return of about 420,000 prisoners to their home countries. In 1920, the task of repatriation was handed over to the newly founded League of Nations, which appointed the Norwegian diplomat and scientist Fridtjof Nansen as its "High Commissioner for Repatriation of the War Prisoners". His legal mandate was later extended to support and care for war refugees and displaced persons when his office became that of the League of Nations "High Commissioner for Refugees". Nansen, who invented the "Nansen passport" for stateless refugees and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922, appointed two delegates from the ICRC as his deputies.


text: A year before the end of the war, the ICRC received the 1917 Nobel Peace Prize for its outstanding wartime work. It was the only Nobel Peace Prize awarded in the period from 1914 to 1918. In 1923, the Committee adopted a change in its policy regarding the selection of new members. Until then, only citizens from the city of Geneva could serve in the committee. This limitation was expanded to include Swiss citizens. As a direct consequence of World War I, an additional protocol to the Geneva Convention was adopted in 1925 which outlawed the use of suffocating or poisonous gases and biological agents as weapons. Four years later, the original Convention was revised and the second Geneva Convention "relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War" was established. The events of World War I and the respective activities of the ICRC significantly increased the reputation and authority of the Committee among the international community and led to an extension of its competencies.


text: As early as in 1934, a draft proposal for an additional convention for the protection of the civil population during an armed conflict was adopted by the International Red Cross Conference. Unfortunately, most governments had little interest in implementing this convention, and it was thus prevented from entering into force before the beginning of World War II.


text: In the Interwar period, Bolivia and Paraguay were disputing possession of the Gran Chaco - a desert region between the two countries. The dispute escalated into a full-scale conflict in 1932. During the war the ICRC visited 18,000 Bolivian prisoners of war and 2,500 Paraguayan detainees. With the help of the ICRC both countries made improvements to the conditions of the detainees.


text: The most reliable primary source on the role of the Red Cross during World War II are the three volumes of the "Report of the International Committee of the Red Cross on its activities during the second world war (September 1, 1939 – June 30, 1947)" written by the International Committee of the Red Cross itself. The report can be read online.


text: The legal basis of the work of the ICRC during World War II was the Geneva Conventions (1929) revision, as well as the Convention relating to the International Status of Refugees, of 28 October 1933. The activities of the committee were similar to those during World War I: visiting and monitoring POW camps, organizing relief assistance for civilian populations, and administering the exchange of messages regarding prisoners and missing persons. By the end of the war, 179 delegates had conducted 12,750 visits to POW camps in 41 countries. The Central Information Agency on Prisoners-of-War ("Zentralauskunftsstelle für Kriegsgefangene") had a staff of 3,000, the card index tracking prisoners contained 45 million cards, and 120 million messages were exchanged by the Agency. Moreover, two other main parties to the conflict, the Soviet Union and Japan, were not party to the 1929 Geneva Conventions and were not legally required to follow the rules of the conventions.


text: During the war, the ICRC failed to obtain an agreement with Nazi Germany about the treatment of detainees in concentration camps, and it eventually abandoned applying pressure to avoid disrupting its work with POWs. The ICRC also failed to develop a response to reliable information about the extermination camps and the mass killing of European Jews. This is still considered the greatest failure of the ICRC in its history. After November 1943, the ICRC achieved permission to send parcels to concentration camp detainees with known names and locations. Because the notices of receipt for these parcels were often signed by other inmates, the ICRC managed to register the identities of about 105,000 detainees in the concentration camps and delivered about 1.1 million parcels, primarily to the camps Dachau, Buchenwald, Ravensbrück, and Sachsenhausen.


text: Swiss historian Jean-Claude Favez, who conducted an 8-year review of the Red Cross records, says that even though the Red Cross knew by November 1942 about the Nazi's annihilation plans for the Jews – and even discussed it with U.S. officials – the group did nothing to inform the public, maintaining silence even in the face of pleas by Jewish groups.


text: Because the Red Cross was based in Geneva and largely funded by the Swiss government, it was very sensitive to Swiss wartime attitudes and policies. In October 1942, the Swiss government and the Red Cross' board of members vetoed a proposal by several Red Cross board members to condemn the persecution of civilians by the Nazis. For the rest of the war, the Red Cross took its cues from Switzerland in avoiding acts of opposition or confrontation with the Nazis.


text: On 12 March 1945, ICRC President Jacob Burckhardt received a message from SS General Ernst Kaltenbrunner accepting the ICRC's demand to allow delegates to visit the concentration camps. This agreement was bound by the condition that these delegates would have to stay in the camps until the end of the war. Ten delegates, among them Louis Haefliger (Mauthausen Camp), Paul Dunant (Theresienstadt Camp) and Victor Maurer (Dachau Camp), accepted the assignment and visited the camps. Louis Haefliger prevented the forceful eviction or blasting of Mauthausen-Gusen by alerting American troops, thereby saving the lives of about 60,000 inmates. His actions were condemned by the ICRC because they were deemed as acting unduly on his own authority and risking the ICRC's neutrality. Only in 1990 was his reputation finally rehabilitated by ICRC President Cornelio Sommaruga.


text: In 1944, the ICRC received its second Nobel Peace Prize. As in World War I, it received the only Peace Prize awarded during the main period of war, 1939 to 1945. At the end of the war, the ICRC worked with national Red Cross societies to organize relief assistance to those countries most severely affected. In 1948, the Committee published a report reviewing its war-era activities from 1 September 1939 to 30 June 1947. Since January 1996, the ICRC archive for this period has been open to academic and public research.


text: In December 1948 the ICRC was invited, along with the IFRC and AFSC, by the United Nations to take part in a $32 million emergency relief programme working with Palestinian refugees. The ICRC was given responsibility for West Bank and Israel.


text: On 12 August 1949, further revisions to the existing two Geneva Conventions were adopted. An additional convention "for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea", now called the second Geneva Convention, was brought under the Geneva Convention umbrella as a successor to the 1907 Hague Convention X. The 1929 Geneva convention "relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War" may have been the second Geneva Convention from a historical point of view (because it was actually formulated in Geneva), but after 1949 it came to be called the third Convention because it came later chronologically than the Hague Convention. Reacting to the experience of World War II, the Fourth Geneva Convention, a new Convention "relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War," was established. Also, the additional protocols of 8 June 1977 were intended to make the conventions apply to internal conflicts such as civil wars. Today, the four conventions and their added protocols contain more than 600 articles, a remarkable expansion when compared to the mere 10 articles in the first 1864 convention.


text: In celebration of its centennial in 1963, the ICRC, together with the League of Red Cross Societies, received its third Nobel Peace Prize. Since 1993, non-Swiss individuals have been allowed to serve as Committee delegates abroad, a task which was previously restricted to Swiss citizens. Indeed, since then, the share of staff without Swiss citizenship has increased to about 35%.


text: On 16 October 1990, the UN General Assembly decided to grant the ICRC observer status for its assembly sessions and sub-committee meetings, the first observer status given to a private organization. The resolution was jointly proposed by 138 member states and introduced by the Italian ambassador, Vieri Traxler, in memory of the organization's origins in the Battle of Solferino. An agreement with the Swiss government signed on 19 March 1993, affirmed the already long-standing policy of full independence of the committee from any possible interference by Switzerland. The agreement protects the full sanctity of all ICRC property in Switzerland including its headquarters and archive, grants members and staff legal immunity, exempts the ICRC from all taxes and fees, guarantees the protected and duty-free transfer of goods, services, and money, provides the ICRC with secure communication privileges at the same level as foreign embassies, and simplifies Committee travel in and out of Switzerland.


text: The ICRC continued its activities throughout the 1990s. It broke its customary media silence when it denounced the Rwandan genocide in 1994. It struggled to prevent the crimes that happened in and around Srebrenica in 1995 but admitted, "We must acknowledge that despite our efforts to help thousands of civilians forcibly expelled from the town and despite the dedication of our colleagues on the spot, the ICRC's impact on the unfolding of the tragedy was extremely limited." It went public once again in 2007 to decry "major human rights abuses" by Burma's military government including forced labour, starvation, and murder of men, women, and children.


text: By taking part in the 1995 ceremony to commemorate the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the President of the ICRC, Cornelio Sommaruga, sought to show that the organization was fully aware of the gravity of The Holocaust and the need to keep the memory of it alive, so as to prevent any repetition of it. He paid tribute to all those who had suffered or lost their lives during the war and publicly regretted the past mistakes and shortcomings of the Red Cross with regard to the victims of the concentration camps.


text: In 2002, an ICRC official outlined some of the lessons the organization has learned from the failure:


text: In an official statement made on 27 January 2005, the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the ICRC stated:


text: Auschwitz also represents the greatest failure in the history of the ICRC, aggravated by its lack of decisiveness in taking steps to aid the victims of Nazi persecution. This failure will remain part of the ICRC's memory, as will the courageous acts of individual ICRC delegates at the time.


text: At the end of the Cold War, the ICRC's work actually became more dangerous. In the 1990s, more delegates lost their lives than at any point in its history, especially when working in local and internal armed conflicts. These incidents often demonstrated a lack of respect for the rules of the Geneva Conventions and their protection symbols. Among the slain delegates were:


text: In 2011, ICRC launched the Health Care In Danger campaign to highlight risks to humanitarian healthcare workers.


text: The original motto of the International Committee of the Red Cross was "Inter Arma Caritas" ("Amidst War, Charity"). It has preserved this motto while other Red Cross organizations have adopted others. Due to Geneva's location in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, the ICRC is also known under its initial French name "Comité international de la Croix-Rouge" (CICR). However, the ICRC has three official languages (English, French and Spanish). The official symbol of the ICRC is the Red Cross on white background (the inverse of the Swiss flag) with the words "COMITE INTERNATIONAL GENEVE" circling the cross.


text: Under the Geneva Convention, the red cross, red crescent and red crystal emblems provide protection for military medical services and relief workers in armed conflicts and is to be placed on humanitarian and medical vehicles and buildings. The original emblem that has a red cross on a white background is the exact reverse of the flag of neutral Switzerland. It was later supplemented by two others which are the Red Crescent, and the Red Crystal. The Red Crescent was adopted by the Ottoman Empire during the Russo-Turkish war and the Red Crystal by the governments in 2005, as an additional emblem devoid of any national, political or religious connotation.


text: The official mission statement says that: "The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is an impartial, neutral, and independent organization whose exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of war and internal violence and to provide them with assistance." It also conducts and coordinates international relief and works to promote and strengthen international humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles. The core tasks of the committee, which are derived from the Geneva Conventions and its own statutes are:


text: The ICRC drew up seven fundamental principles in 1965 that were adopted by the entire Red Cross Movement. They are humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, volunteerism, unity, and universality.


text: The ICRC is the only institution explicitly named in international humanitarian law as a controlling authority. The legal mandate of the ICRC stems from the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, as well as its own Statutes. The ICRC also undertakes tasks that are not specifically mandated by law, such as visiting political prisoners outside of conflict and providing relief in natural disasters.


text: The ICRC is a private Swiss association that has enjoyed various degrees of special privileges and legal immunities within the territory of Switzerland for many years. On 19 March 1993, a legal foundation for this special treatment was created by a formal agreement between the Swiss government and the ICRC. This agreement protects the full sanctity of all ICRC property in Switzerland including its headquarters and archive, grants members and staff legal immunity, exempts the ICRC from all taxes and fees, guarantees protected and duty-free transfer of goods, services, and money, provides the ICRC with secure communication privileges at the same level as foreign embassies, and simplifies Committee travel in and out of Switzerland. On the other hand, Switzerland does not recognize ICRC-issued passports.


text: Contrary to popular belief, the ICRC is not a sovereign entity like the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The ICRC limits its membership to Swiss nationals only, and also it does not have a policy of open and unrestricted membership for individuals as its new members are selected by the Committee itself (a process called cooptation). However, since the early 1990s, the ICRC employs persons from all over the world to serve in its field mission and at Headquarters. In 2007, almost half of ICRC staff was non-Swiss. The ICRC has special privileges and legal immunities in many countries, based on national law in these countries, based on agreements between the ICRC and the respective governments, or, in some cases, based on international jurisprudence (such as the right of ICRC delegates not to bear witness in front of international tribunals).


text: The ICRC's operations are generally based on international humanitarian law, primarily comprising the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, their two Additional Protocols of 1977 and Additional Protocol III of 2005, the Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and the resolutions of the International Conferences of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.


text: International humanitarian law is founded upon the Geneva conventions, the first of which was signed in 1864 by 16 countries. The First Geneva Convention of 1949 covers the protection for the wounded and sick of armed conflict on land. The Second Geneva Convention asks for the protection and care for the wounded, sick and shipwrecked of armed conflict at sea. The Third Geneva Convention concerns the treatment of prisoners of war. The Fourth Geneva Convention concerns the protection of civilians in time of war. In addition, there are many more customary international laws that come into effect when necessary.


text: The 2010 budget of the ICRC amounts to about 1156 million Swiss francs. All payments to the ICRC are voluntary and are received as donations based on two types of appeals issued by the committee: an annual "Headquarters Appeal" to cover its internal costs and "Emergency Appeals" for its individual missions. The total budget for 2009 consists of about 996.9 million Swiss Francs (85% of the total) for field work and 168.6 million Swiss Francs (15%) for internal costs. In 2009, the budget for field work increased by 6.9% and the internal budget by 4.4% compared to 2008, primarily due to above-average increases in the number and scope of its missions in Africa.


text: Most of the ICRC's funding comes from Switzerland and the United States, with other European states and the EU close behind. Together with Australia, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand, they contribute about 80–85% of the ICRC's budget. About 3% comes from private gifts, and the rest comes from national Red Cross societies.


text: The ICRC is responsible for legally recognizing a relief society as an official national Red Cross or Red Crescent society and thus accepting it into the movement. The exact rules for recognition are defined in the statutes of the movement. After recognition by the ICRC, a national society is admitted as a member to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (the Federation, or IFRC). The ICRC and the Federation cooperate with the individual national societies in their international missions, especially with human, material, and financial resources and organizing on-site logistics. According to the 1997 Seville Agreement, the ICRC is the lead Red Cross agency in conflicts while other organizations within the movement take the lead in non-war situations. National societies will be given the lead especially when a conflict is happening within their own country.


text: The ICRC is headquartered in the Swiss city of Geneva and has external offices called Delegations (or in rare cases, “missions”) in about eighty countries. Each delegation is under the responsibility of a Head of delegation who is the official representative of the ICRC in the country. Of its 3,000 professional employees, roughly 1,000 work in its Geneva headquarters and 2,000 expatriates work in the field. About half of the field workers serve as delegates managing ICRC operations, while the other half are specialists such as doctors, agronomists, engineers, or interpreters. In the delegations, the international staff are assisted by some 15,000 national employees, bringing the total staff under the authority of the ICRC to roughly 18,000. Delegations also often work closely with the National Red Cross Societies of the countries where they are based, and thus can call on the volunteers of the National Red Cross to assist in some of the ICRC's operations.


text: The organizational structure of the ICRC is not well understood by outsiders. This is partly because of organizational secrecy, but also because the structure itself has been prone to frequent change. The Assembly and Presidency are two long-standing institutions, but the Assembly Council and Directorate were created only in the latter part of the twentieth century. Decisions are often made in a collective way, so authority and power relationships are not set in stone. Today, the leading organs are the Directorate and the Assembly.


text: The Directorate is the executive body of the ICRC. It attends to the daily management of the ICRC, whereas the Assembly sets policy. The Directorate consists of a Director-General and five directors in the areas of "Operations", "Human Resources", "Financial Resources and Logistics ", "Communication and Information Management", and "International Law and Cooperation within the Movement". The members of the Directorate are appointed by the Assembly to serve for four years. The Director-General has assumed more personal responsibility in recent years, much like a CEO, where he was formerly more of a first among equals at the Directorate.


text: The Assembly (also called the Committee) convenes on a regular basis and is responsible for defining aims, guidelines, and strategies and for supervising the financial matters of the committee. The Assembly has a membership of a maximum of twenty-five Swiss citizens. Members must speak the house language of French, but many also speak English and German as well. These Assembly members are co-opted for a period of four years, and there is no limit to the number of terms an individual member can serve. A three-quarters majority vote from all members is required for re-election after the third term, which acts as a motivation for members to remain active and productive.


text: In the early years, every Committee member was Genevan, Protestant, white, and male. The first woman, the historian and legal scholar Renée-Marguerite Cramer (1887-1963), was co-opted in 1918, but resigned already in 1922 when she moved to Germany. She was succeeded by the nurse and suffragette Pauline Chaponnière-Chaix (1850-1934). The third female member was the music educator Suzanne Ferrière (1886-1970) in 1925, followed by the nurses Lucie Odier (1886-1984) in 1930 and Renée Bordier (1902-2000) in 1938.


text: In recent decades, several women have attained the Vice Presidency, and the female proportion after the Cold War has been about 15%. The first non-Genevans were admitted in 1923, and one Jew has served in the Assembly.


text: While the rest of the Red Cross Movement may be multi-national, the Committee believes that its mono-national nature is an asset because the nationality in question is Swiss. Thanks to permanent Swiss neutrality, conflicting parties can be sure that no one from "the enemy" will be setting policy in Geneva. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 showed that even Red Cross actors (in this case National Societies) can be so bound by nationalism that they are unable to sustain neutral humanitarianism.


text: Furthermore, the Assembly elects a five-member Assembly Council that constitutes an especially active core of the Assembly. The Council meets at least ten times per year and has the authority to decide on behalf of the full Assembly in some matters. The council is also responsible for organizing the Assembly meetings and for facilitating communication between the Assembly and the Directorate. The Assembly Council normally includes the President, two Vice Presidents and two elected members. While one of the Vice Presidents is elected for a four-year term, the other is appointed permanently, his tenure ending by retirement from the vice presidency or from the committee. Currently Olivier Vodoz and Christine Beerli are the Vice Presidents.


text: The Assembly also selects, for a term of four years, one individual to act as President of the ICRC. The President is both a member of the Assembly and the leader of the ICRC, and has always been included on the Council since its formation. The President automatically becomes a member of both the Council and the Assembly, but does not necessarily come from within the ICRC. There is a strong faction within the Assembly that wants to reach outside the organization to select a President from Swiss government or professional circles (such as banking or medicine). In fact, the four most recent Presidents were all previously officials for the Swiss government. The President's influence and role are not well-defined, and change depending upon the times and each President's personal style.


text: From 2000 to 2012, the President of the ICRC was Jakob Kellenberger, a reclusive man who rarely made diplomatic appearances, but was quite skilled in personal negotiation and comfortable with the dynamics of the Assembly. Since July 2012, the President has been Peter Maurer, a Swiss citizen who is a former Secretary for Foreign Affairs. He was appointed by the Assembly for a renewable four-year term.


text: Mirjana Spoljaric Egger took over the office from Peter Maurer on 1 October 2022, becoming the first woman to serve in this position.


text: As the ICRC has grown and become more directly involved in conflicts, it has seen an increase in professional staff rather than volunteers over the years. The ICRC had only twelve employees in 1914 and 1,900 in the Second World War complemented its 1,800 volunteers. The number of paid staff dropped off after both wars, but has increased once again in the last few decades, averaging 500 field staff in the 1980s and over a thousand in the 1990s. Beginning in the 1970s, the ICRC became more systematic in training to develop a more professional staff. The ICRC offers attractive careers for university graduates, especially in Switzerland, but the workload as an ICRC employee is demanding. 15% of the staff leaves each year and 75% of employees stay less than three years. The ICRC staff is multi-national and averaged about 50% non-Swiss citizens in 2004. The ICRC's international staff are assisted in their work by some 15,000 national employees hired in the countries where the delegations are based.


text: The ICRC operates in over 80 countries with a total number of 18,000 employed people worldwide. The extensive network of ICRC missions and delegations can help to relieve nations affected by conflict and violence. Over the past few years, the ICRC’s largest operations have typically been in Yemen, Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Iraq and more recently, Ethiopia.


text: By virtue of its age and its special position under international humanitarian law, the ICRC is the lead agency in the Red Cross Movement, but it has weathered some power struggles within the movement. The ICRC has come into conflict with the Federation and certain national societies at various times. The American Red Cross threatened to supplant the ICRC with its creation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies as "a real international Red Cross" after the First World War. Elements of the Swedish Red Cross desired to supplant the Swiss authority of the ICRC after WWII. Over time the Swedish sentiments subsided, and the IFRC grew to work more harmoniously with the ICRC after years of organizational discord. Currently, the IFRC's Movement Cooperation division organizes interaction and cooperation with the ICRC.


text: In 1997, the ICRC and the IFRC signed the Seville Agreement which further defined the responsibilities of both organizations within the movement. According to the agreement, the Federation is the lead agency of the movement in any emergency situation which does not take place as part of an armed conflict.


text: From its inception in 1930 until 2006, the Magen David Adom organization, the Israeli equivalent to the Red Cross, was not accepted as part of the Federation, as it used the Star of David, which the ICRC refused to recognize as an acceptable symbol. This meant that although Arab ambulances would be protected by the ICRC, Israeli ambulances would not. In May 2000, Bernadine Healy, the President of the American Red Cross, wrote: "The international committee's feared proliferation of symbols is a pitiful fig leaf, used for decades as the reason for excluding the Magen David Adom – the Shield (or Star) of David." In protest over the ICRC's perceived anti-Israel discrimination, the ARC withdrew its financial support. In 2005, at a meeting of nations party to the Geneva convention, the ICRC adopted the new Red Crystal. Magen David Adom then centred the Star of David sign inside the newly accepted signage, and in 2006 was accepted as a full member. Yonatan Yagodovsky, director of MDA's fundraising department, said in an article published in October 2011 that "MDA will continue to use its emblem and logo, and no one ever asked us to take it off."


text: The ICRC prefers to engage states directly and relies on low-key and confidential negotiations to lobby for access to prisoners of war and improvement in their treatment. Its findings are not available to the general public but are shared only with the relevant government. This is in contrast to related organizations like Doctors Without Borders and Amnesty International who are more willing to expose abuses and apply public pressure to governments. The ICRC reasons that this approach allows it greater access and cooperation from governments in the long run.


text: When granted only partial access, the ICRC takes what it can get and keeps discreetly lobbying for greater access. In the era of apartheid South Africa, it was granted access to prisoners like Nelson Mandela serving sentences, but not to those under interrogation and awaiting trial. After his release, Mandela publicly praised the Red Cross.


text: The presence of respectable aid organizations can make weak regimes appear more legitimate, according to Fiona Terry, head of ICRC’s operational research centre. Terry contends that "this is particularly true of [the] ICRC, whose mandate, reputation, and discretion imbue its presence with a particularly affirming quality." Recognizing this power, the ICRC can pressure weak governments to change their behaviour by threatening to withdraw. As mentioned above, Nelson Mandela acknowledged that the ICRC compelled better treatment of prisoners and had leverage over his South African captors because "avoiding international condemnation was the authorities' main goal."


title: Airbag

text: An airbag is a vehicle occupant-restraint system using a bag designed to inflate extremely quickly, then quickly deflate during a collision. It consists of the airbag cushion, a flexible fabric bag, an inflation module, and an impact sensor. The purpose of the airbag is to provide a vehicle occupant with soft cushioning and restraint during a collision. It can reduce injuries between the flailing occupant and the interior of the vehicle.


title: Airbag

text: The airbag provides an energy-absorbing surface between the vehicle's occupants and a steering wheel, instrument panel, body pillar, headliner, and windshield. Modern vehicles may contain up to 10 airbag modules in various configurations, including: driver, passenger, side-curtain, seat-mounted, door-mounted, B and C-pillar mounted side-impact, knee bolster, inflatable seat belt, and pedestrian airbag modules.


title: Airbag

text: During a crash, the vehicle's crash sensors provide crucial information to the airbag electronic controller unit (ECU), including collision type, angle, and severity of impact. Using this information, the airbag ECU's crash algorithm determines if the crash event meets the criteria for deployment and triggers various firing circuits to deploy one or more airbag modules within the vehicle. Working as a supplemental restraint system to the vehicle's seat-belt systems, airbag module deployments are triggered through a pyrotechnic process that is designed to be used once. Newer side-impact airbag modules consist of compressed-air cylinders that are triggered in the event of a side-on vehicle impact.


title: Airbag

text: The first commercial designs were introduced in passenger automobiles during the 1970s, with limited success, and actually caused some fatalities. Broad commercial adoption of airbags occurred in many markets during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Many modern vehicles now include six or more units.


title: Airbag

text: Airbags are considered "passive" restraints and act as a supplement to "active" restraints. Because no action by a vehicle occupant is required to activate or use the airbag, it is considered a "passive" device. This is in contrast to seat belts, which are considered "active" devices because the vehicle occupant must act to enable them.


title: Airbag

text: This terminology is not related to active and passive safety, which are, respectively, systems designed to prevent collisions in the first place, and systems designed to minimize the effects of collisions once they occur. In this use, a car antilock braking system qualifies as an active-safety device, while both its seatbelts and airbags qualify as passive-safety devices. Further terminological confusion can arise from the fact that passive devices and systems—those requiring no input or action by the vehicle occupant—can operate independently in an active manner; an airbag is one such device. Vehicle safety professionals are generally careful in their use of language to avoid this sort of confusion, though advertising principles sometimes prevent such semantic caution in the consumer marketing of safety features. Further confusing the terminology, the aviation safety community uses the terms "active" and "passive" in the "opposite" sense from the automotive industry.


title: Airbag

text: The airbag "for the covering of aeroplane and other vehicle parts" traces its origins to a United States patent, submitted in 1919 by two dentists from Birmingham, Arthur Parrott & Harold Round and approved in 1920. Air-filled bladders were in use as early as 1951. The airbag specifically for automobile use is credited independently to the American John W. Hetrick, who filed for an airbag patent on 5 August 1952, that was granted #2,649,311 by the United States Patent Office on 18 August 1953. German engineer Walter Linderer, who filed German patent #896,312 on 6 October 1951, was issued on 12 November 1953, approximately three months after American John Hetrick. Hetrick and Linderer's airbags were both based on a compressed air system, either released by spring, bumper contact, or by the driver. Later research during the 1960s showed that compressed air could not inflate the mechanical airbags fast enough to ensure maximum safety, leading to the current chemical and electrical airbags. In patent applications, manufacturers sometimes use the term "inflatable occupant restraint systems".


title: Airbag

text: Hetrick was an industrial engineer and member of the United States Navy. His airbag design, however, only came about when he combined his experiences working with navy torpedoes with his desire to protect his family on the road. Despite working with the major automobile manufacturers of his time, Hetrick was unable to attract investment. Although airbags are now required in every automobile sold in the United States, Hetrick's 1951 patent filing serves as an example of a "valuable" invention with little economic value to its inventor. Its first commercial use was not implemented until after the patent expired in 1971, at which point the airbag was installed in a few experimental Ford cars.


title: Airbag

text: In 1964, a Japanese automobile engineer, (小堀保三郎), started developing an airbag "safety net" system. His design harnessed an explosive to inflate an airbag, for which he was later awarded patents in 14 countries. He died in 1975, before seeing widespread adoption of airbag systems.


title: Airbag

text: In 1967, a breakthrough in the development of airbag crash sensors came when Allen K. Breed invented a ball-in-tube mechanism for crash detection. Under his system, an electromechanical sensor with a steel ball attached to a tube by a magnet would inflate an airbag in under 30 milliseconds. A small explosion of sodium azide was used instead of compressed air during inflation for the first time. Breed Corporation then marketed this innovation to Chrysler. A similar "Auto-Ceptor" crash-restraint, developed by the Eaton, Yale & Towne company for Ford, was soon also offered as an automatic safety system in the United States, while the Italian Eaton-Livia company offered a variant with localized air cushions.


title: Airbag

text: In the early 1970s, General Motors began offering cars equipped with airbags, initially in government fleet-purchased, 1973 Chevrolet Impala sedans. These cars came with a 1974-style Oldsmobile instrument panel and a special steering wheel that contained the driver-side air bag. Two of these cars were crash tested after 20 years and the airbags deployed perfectly. An early example of the air-bag cars survives as of 2009. GM's Oldsmobile Toronado was the first domestic U.S. vehicle to include a passenger airbag. General Motors marketed its first airbag modules under the "Air Cushion Restraint System" name, or ACRS. The automaker discontinued the option for its 1977 model year, citing lack of consumer interest. Ford and GM then spent years lobbying against air-bag requirements, claiming that the devices were unfeasible and inappropriate. Chrysler made driver-side airbags standard on 1988–1989 models, but airbags did not become widespread in American cars until the early 1990s.


title: Airbag

text: Airbags for passenger cars were introduced in the United States in the 1970s. When seat-belt usage rates in the country were quite low compared to modern-day, Ford built experimental cars with airbags in 1971. Allstate operated a fleet of 200 Mercury Montereys and showed reliability of airbags as well as their operation in crash testing, which also was promoted by the insurance company in popular magazine advertisements. General Motors followed in 1973 using full-sized Chevrolet vehicles. The early fleet of experimental GM vehicles equipped with airbags experienced seven fatalities, one of which was later suspected to have been caused by the airbag.


title: Airbag

text: In 1974, GM made its ACRS system (which consisted of a padded lower dashboard and a passenger-side air bag) available as a regular production option (RPO code AR3) in full-sized Cadillac, Buick and Oldsmobile models. The GM cars from the 1970s equipped with ACRS had a driver-side airbag, a driver-side knee restraint. The passenger-side airbag protected both front passengers, and unlike most modern systems, integrated a knee and torso cushion while also having a dual-stage deployment dictated by force of the impact. The cars equipped with ACRS had lap belts for all seating positions, but lacked shoulder belts. Shoulder belts were already mandatory in the United States on closed cars without airbags for the driver and outer front passenger, but GM chose to market its airbags as a substitute for shoulder belts. Prices for this option on Cadillac models were US$225 in 1974, $300 in 1975, and $340 in 1976 (US$ in dollars ).


title: Airbag

text: The early development of airbags coincided with international interest in automobile safety legislation. Some safety experts advocated a performance-based occupant-protection standard rather than one mandating a particular technical solution (which could rapidly become outdated and prove to not be a cost-effective approach). Less emphasis was placed on other designs as countries successfully mandated seatbelt restrictions, however.


title: Airbag

text: The auto industry and research and regulatory communities have moved away from their initial view of the airbag as a seat-belt replacement, and the bags are now nominally designated as supplemental restraint systems (SRS) or supplemental inflatable restraints.


title: Airbag

text: In 1981, Mercedes-Benz introduced the airbag in West Germany as an option on its flagship saloon model, S-Class (W126). In the Mercedes system, the sensors automatically tensioned the seat belts to reduce occupants' motion on impact and then deployed the airbag on impact. This integrated the seat belts and airbag into a restraint system, rather than the airbag being considered an alternative to the seat belt.


title: Airbag

text: In 1987, the Porsche 944 Turbo became the first car to have driver and passenger airbags as standard equipment. The Porsche 944 and 944S had this as an available option. The same year also had the first airbag in a Japanese car, the Honda Legend.


title: Airbag

text: In 1988, Chrysler became the first United States automaker to fit a driver-side airbag as standard equipment, which was offered in six different models. The following year, Chrysler became the first US auto manufacturer to offer driver-side airbags in all its new passenger models. Chrysler also began featuring the air bags in advertisements showing how the devices had saved lives that helped the public know the value of them and safety became a selling advantage in the late 1980s. All versions of the Chrysler minivans came with airbags starting for the 1991 model year. In 1993, The Lincoln Motor Company boasted that all vehicles in their model line were equipped with dual airbags, one for driver-side and another for passenger-side. The 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee became the first SUV to offer a driver-side airbag when it was launched in 1992. Driver and passenger airbags became standard equipment in all Dodge Intrepid, Eagle Vision, and Chrysler Concorde sedans ahead of any safety regulations. Early 1993 saw the 4-millionth airbag-equipped Chrysler vehicle roll off the assembly line. In October 1993, the Dodge Ram became the first pickup truck with a standard driver-side airbag.


title: Airbag

text: The first known collision between two airbag-equipped automobiles took place on 12 March 1990 in Virginia, USA. A 1989 Chrysler LeBaron crossed the center line and hit another 1989 Chrysler LeBaron in a head-on collision, causing both driver airbags to deploy. The drivers suffered only minor injuries despite extensive damage to the vehicles.


title: Airbag

text: The United States Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 required passenger cars and light trucks built after 1 September 1998 to have airbags for the driver and the front passenger. In the United States, NHTSA estimated that airbags had saved over 4,600 lives by 1 September 1999; however, the crash deployment experience of the early 1990s installations indicated that some fatalities and serious injuries were in fact caused by airbags. In 1998, NHTSA initiated new rules for advanced airbags that gave automakers more flexibility in devising effective technological solutions. The revised rules also required improved protection for occupants of different sizes regardless of whether they use seat belts, while minimizing the risk to infants, children, and other occupants caused by airbags.


title: Airbag

text: In Europe, airbags were almost unheard of until the early 1990s. By 1991, four manufacturers – BMW, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo – offered the airbag on some of their higher-end models, but shortly afterward, airbags became a common feature on more mainstream cars, with Ford and Vauxhall/Opel among the manufacturers to introduce the airbag to its model ranges in 1992. Citroën, Fiat, Nissan, Hyundai, Peugeot, Renault, and Volkswagen followed shortly afterwards.


title: Airbag

text: By 1999, finding a new mass market car without an airbag at least as optional equipment was difficult, and some late 1990s products, such as the Volkswagen Golf Mk4, also featured side airbags. The Peugeot 306 is one example of the European automotive mass-market evolution: starting in early 1993, most of these models did not even offer a driver's airbag as an option, but by 1999, even side airbags were available on several variants. Audi was late to offer airbag systems on a broader scale, since even in the 1994 model year, its popular models did not offer airbags. Instead, the German automaker until then relied solely on its proprietary cable-based procon-ten restraint system.


title: Airbag

text: Variable force-deployment front airbags were developed to help minimize injury from the airbag itself.


title: Airbag

text: The emergence of the airbag has contributed to a sharp decline in the number of deaths and serious injuries on the roads of Europe since 1990, and by 2010, the number of cars on European roads lacking an airbag represented a very small percentage of cars, mostly the remaining cars dating from the mid-1990s or earlier.


title: Airbag

text: Many new cars in Latin America, including the Kia Picanto, Kia Rio, Hyundai Accent, and Suzuki Alto, are still regularly sold without airbags, as neither airbags nor automatic braking systems in new cars are compulsory in Latin America.


title: Airbag

text: The Citroën C4 provided the first "shaped" driver airbag, made possible by this car's unusual fixed-hub steering wheel.


title: Airbag

text: In 2019, Honda announced it would introduce a new front passenger airbag technology. Developed by Autoliv and Honda R&D in Ohio, United States, this new airbag design features three inflatable chambers connected across the front by a "noninflatable sail panel." The two outer chambers are larger than the middle chamber. When the airbag deploys, the sail panel cushions the occupant's head from the impact of hitting the airbag, and the three chambers hold the occupant's head in place, like a catcher's mitt. The goal of the tri-chamber airbag is to help "arrest high-speed movement" of the head, thereby reducing the likelihood of concussion injuries in a collision. The first vehicle to come with the tri-chamber airbag installed from the factory was in 2020 (for the 2021 model year) for the Acura TLX. Honda hopes that the new technology will soon make its way to all vehicles.


title: Airbag

text: Mercedes began offering rear passengers protection in frontal collisions in September 2020 (for the 2021 model year) for the Mercedes-Benz S-Class (W223).


title: Airbag

text: Essentially, two types of side airbags are commonly used today - the side-torso airbag and the side-curtain airbag. More recently, center airbags are becoming more common in the European market.


title: Airbag

text: Most vehicles equipped with side-curtain airbags also include side-torso airbags. However, some, such as the Chevrolet Cobalt, 2007–09 model Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra, and 2009–12 Dodge Ram do not feature the side-torso airbag.


title: Airbag

text: From around 2000, side-impact airbags became commonplace on even low- to mid-range vehicles, such as the smaller-engined versions of the Ford Fiesta and Peugeot 206, and curtain airbags were also becoming regular features on mass-market cars. The Toyota Avensis, launched in 2003, was the first mass-market car to be sold in Europe with nine airbags.


title: Airbag

text: Side-impact airbags or side-torso airbags are a category of airbags usually located in the seat or door panel, and inflate between the seat occupant and the door. These airbags are designed to reduce the risk of injury to the pelvic and lower abdomen regions. Most vehicles are now being equipped with different types of designs, to help reduce injury and ejection from the vehicle in rollover crashes. More recent side-airbag designs include a two chamber system; a firmer lower chamber for the pelvic region and softer upper chamber for the ribcage.


title: Airbag

text: Swedish company Autoliv AB was granted a patent on side-impact airbags, and they were first offered as an option in 1994 on the 1995 Volvo 850, and as standard equipment on all Volvo cars made after 1995.


title: Airbag

text: Some cars, such as the 2010 Volkswagen Polo Mk.5 have combined head- and torso-side airbags. These are fitted in the backrest of the front seats, and protect the head and the torso.


title: Airbag

text: In 1997, the BMW 7 Series and 5 Series were fitted with tubular-shaped head side airbags (inflatable tubular structure), the "Head Protection System (HPS)" as standard equipment. This airbag was designed to offer head protection in side impact collisions and also maintained inflation for up to seven seconds for rollover protection. However, this tubular-shaped airbag design has been quickly replaced by an inflatable 'curtain' airbag.


title: Airbag

text: In May 1998, Toyota began offering a side-curtain airbag deploying from the roof on the Progrés. In 1998, the Volvo S80 was given roof-mounted curtain airbags to protect both front and rear passengers. Curtain airbags were then made standard equipment on all new Volvo cars from 2000 except for the first-generation C70, which received an enlarged side-torso airbag that also protects the head of front-seat occupants. The second-generation C70 convertible received the world's first door-mounted, side-curtain airbags that deployed upwards.


title: Airbag

text: Curtain airbags have been said to reduce brain injury or fatalities by up to 45% in a side impact with an SUV. These airbags come in various forms (e.g., tubular, curtain, door-mounted) depending on the needs of the application. Many recent SUVs and MPVs have a long inflatable curtain airbag that protects all rows of seats.


title: Airbag

text: In many vehicles, the curtain airbags are programmed to deploy during some/all frontal impacts to manage passenger kinetics (e.g. head hitting B-pillar on the rebound), especially in offset crashes such as the IIHS's small overlap crash test.


title: Airbag

text: Roll-sensing curtain airbags are designed to stay inflated for a longer duration of time, cover a larger proportion of the window, and be deployed in a roll-over crash. They offer protection to occupants' heads and help to prevent ejection. SUVs and pickups are more likely to be equipped with RSCAs due to their higher probability of rolling over and often a switch can disable the feature in case the driver wants to take the vehicle off-road.


title: Airbag

text: In 2009, Toyota developed the first production rear-seat center airbag designed to reduce the severity of secondary injuries to rear passengers in a side collision. This system deploys from the rear center seat first appearing in on the Crown Majesta. In late 2012, General Motors with supplier Takata introduced a front center airbag; it deploys from the driver's seat.


title: Airbag

text: Hyundai Motor Group announced its development of center side airbag on September 18, 2019 installed inside the driver’s seat.


title: Airbag

text: With EuroNCAP updating its testing guidelines in 2020, European and Australian market vehicles increasingly use front center airbags, rear torso airbags and rear seatbelt pretensioners.


title: Airbag

text: The second driver-side and separate knee airbag was used in the Kia Sportage SUV and has been standard equipment since then. The airbag is located beneath the steering wheel.


title: Airbag

text: The Toyota Caldina introduced the first driver-side SRS knee airbag on the Japanese market in 2002. Toyota Avensis became the first vehicle sold in Europe equipped with a driver's knee airbag. The EuroNCAP reported on the 2003 Avensis, "There has been much effort to protect the driver's knees and legs and a knee airbag worked well." Since then certain models have also included front-passenger knee airbags, which deploy near or over the glove compartment in a crash. Knee airbags are designed to reduce leg injury. The knee airbag has become increasingly common from 2000.


title: Airbag

text: In 2008, the new Toyota iQ microcar featured the first production rear-curtain shield airbag to protect the rear occupants' heads in the event of a rear-end impact.


title: Airbag

text: Another feature of the Toyota iQ was a seat-cushion airbag in the passenger seat to prevent the pelvis from diving below the lap belt during a frontal impact or submarining. Later Toyota models such as the Yaris added the feature to the driver's seat, as well.


title: Airbag

text: The seat-belt airbag is designed to better distribute the forces experienced by a buckled person in a crash by means of an increased seat belt area. This is done to reduce possible injuries to the rib cage or chest of the belt wearer.


title: Airbag

text: Cessna Aircraft also introduced seat belt airbags. They are as of 2003 standard on the 172, 182, and 206.


title: Airbag

text: Airbag(s) mounted to the exterior of vehicles, so called "pedestrian airbags", are designed to reduce injuries in the event of a vehicle to pedestrian collision. When a collision is detected the airbag will deploy and cover hard areas, such as a-pillars and bonnet edges, before they can be struck by the pedestrian.


title: Airbag

text: When introduced in 2012 the Volvo V40 included the world's first pedestrian airbag as standard. As a result, the V40 ranked highest (88%) in the EuroNCAP's pedestrian tests.


title: Airbag

text: SRS airbag suppliers include Autoliv, Daicel, TRW and JSS (which now owns Breed, Key Safety Systems and Takata). The majority of impact sensors of airbags are manufactured by the Lanka Harness Company.


title: Airbag

text: The airbags in the vehicle are controlled by a central airbag control unit (ACU), a specific type of ECU. The ACU monitors a number of related sensors within the vehicle, including accelerometers, impact sensors, side (door) pressure sensors, wheel speed sensors, gyroscopes, brake pressure sensors, and seat occupancy sensors. Oftentimes, ACUs log this—and other—sensor data in a circular buffer and record it to onboard non-volatile memory, in order to provide a snapshot of the crash event for investigators. As such, an ACU frequently functions as the vehicle's event data recorder; not all EDRs are ACUs, and not all ACUs include EDR features. An ACU typically includes capacitors within its circuitry, so that the module remains powered and able to deploy the airbags in the event that the vehicle's battery connection to the ACU is severed during a crash.


title: Airbag

text: The bag itself and its inflation mechanism is concealed within the steering wheel boss (for the driver), or the dashboard (for the front passenger), behind plastic flaps or doors which are designed to tear open under the force of the bag inflating. Once the requisite threshold has been reached or exceeded, the airbag control unit will trigger the ignition of a gas generator propellant to rapidly inflate a fabric bag. As the vehicle occupant collides with and squeezes the bag, the gas escapes in a controlled manner through small vent holes. The airbag's volume and the size of the vents in the bag are tailored to each vehicle type, to spread out the deceleration of (and thus force experienced by) the occupant over time and over the occupant's body, compared to a seat belt alone.


title: Airbag

text: The signals from the various sensors are fed into the airbag control unit, which determines from them the angle of impact, the severity, or the force of the crash, along with other variables. Depending on the result of these calculations, the ACU may also deploy various additional restraint devices, such as seat belt pre-tensioners, and/or airbags (including frontal bags for driver and front passenger, along with seat-mounted side bags, and "curtain" airbags which cover the side glass). Each restraint device is typically activated with one or more pyrotechnic devices, commonly called an initiator or electric match. The electric match, which consists of an electrical conductor wrapped in a combustible material, activates with a current pulse between 1 and 3 amperes in less than 2 milliseconds. When the conductor becomes hot enough, it ignites the combustible material, which initiates the gas generator. In a seat belt pre-tensioner, this hot gas is used to drive a piston that pulls the slack out of the seat belt. In an airbag, the initiator is used to ignite solid propellant inside the airbag inflator. The burning propellant generates inert gas which rapidly inflates the airbag in approximately 20 to 30 milliseconds. An airbag must inflate quickly in order to be fully inflated by the time the forward-traveling occupant reaches its outer surface. Typically, the decision to deploy an airbag in a frontal crash is made within 15 to 30 milliseconds after the onset of the crash, and both the driver and passenger airbags are fully inflated within approximately 60–80 milliseconds after the first moment of vehicle contact. If an airbag deploys too late or too slowly, the risk of occupant injury from contact with the inflating airbag may increase. Since more distance typically exists between the passenger and the instrument panel, the passenger airbag is larger and requires more gas to fill it.


title: Airbag

text: Older airbag systems contained a mixture of sodium azide (NaN), KNO, and SiO. A typical driver-side airbag contains approximately 50–80 g of NaN, with the larger passenger-side airbag containing about 250 g. Within about 40 milliseconds of impact, all these components react in three separate reactions that produce nitrogen gas. The reactions, in order, are as follows.


title: Airbag

text: The first two reactions create 4 molar equivalents of nitrogen gas, and the third converts the remaining reactants to relatively inert potassium silicate and sodium silicate. The reason that KNO is used rather than something like NaNO is because it is less hygroscopic. It is very important that the materials used in this reaction are not hygroscopic because absorbed moisture can de-sensitize the system and cause the reaction to fail.


title: Airbag

text: The particle size of the initial reactants is important to reliable operation. The NaN and KNO must be between 10 and 20 µm, while the SiO must be between 5 and 10 µm.


title: Airbag

text: There are ongoing efforts to find alternative compounds that can be used in airbags which have less toxic reactants. In a journal article by Akiyoshi et al., it was found that for the reaction of the Sr complex nitrate, (Sr(NHNHCONHNH)∙(NO)) of carbohydrazide (SrCDH) with various oxidizing agents resulted in the evolution of N and CO gases. Using KBrO as the oxidizing agent resulted in the most vigorous reaction as well as the lowest initial temperature of the reaction. The N and CO gases evolved made up 99% of all gases evolved. Nearly all the starting materials won't decompose until reaching temperatures of 500 °C or higher so this could be a viable option as an airbag gas generator.


title: Airbag

text: In a patent containing another plausible alternative to NaN driven airbags, the gas generating materials involved the use of guanidine nitrate, 5-aminotetrazole, bitetrazole dihydrate, nitroimidazole, and basic copper nitrate. It was found that these non-azide reagents allowed for a less toxic, lower combustion temperature reaction, and more easily disposable airbag inflation system.


title: Airbag

text: Front airbags normally do not protect the occupants during side, rear, or rollover collisions. Since airbags deploy only once and deflate quickly after the initial impact, they will not be beneficial during a subsequent collision. Safety belts help reduce the risk of injury in many types of crashes. They help to properly position occupants to maximize the airbag's benefits and they help restrain occupants during the initial and any following collisions.


title: Airbag

text: In vehicles equipped with a rollover sensing system, accelerometers and gyroscopes are used to sense the onset of a rollover event. If a rollover event is determined to be imminent, side-curtain airbags are deployed to help protect the occupant from contact with the side of the vehicle interior, and also to help prevent occupant ejection as the vehicle rolls over.


title: Airbag

text: Airbags are designed to deploy in frontal and near-frontal collisions more severe than a threshold defined by the regulations governing vehicle construction in whatever particular market the vehicle is intended for: United States regulations require deployment in crashes at least equivalent in deceleration to a 23 km/h (14 mph) barrier collision, or similarly, striking a parked car of similar size across the full front of each vehicle at about twice the speed. International regulations are performance-based, rather than technology-based, so airbag deployment threshold is a function of overall vehicle design.


title: Airbag

text: Unlike crash tests into barriers, real-world crashes typically occur at angles other than directly into the front of the vehicle, and the crash forces usually are not evenly distributed across the front of the vehicle. Consequently, the relative speed between a striking and struck vehicle required to deploy the airbag in a real-world crash can be much higher than an equivalent barrier crash. Because airbag sensors measure deceleration, the vehicle speed is not a good indicator of whether an airbag should have deployed. Airbags can deploy due to the vehicle's undercarriage striking a low object protruding above the roadway due to the resulting deceleration.


title: Airbag

text: The airbag sensor is a MEMS accelerometer, which is a small integrated circuit with integrated micro mechanical elements. The microscopic mechanical element moves in response to rapid deceleration, and this motion causes a change in capacitance, which is detected by the electronics on the chip that then sends a signal to fire the airbag. The most common MEMS accelerometer in use is the ADXL-50 by Analog Devices, but there are other MEMS manufacturers as well.


title: Airbag

text: Initial attempts using mercury switches did not work well. Before MEMS, the primary system used to deploy airbags was called a "rolamite". A rolamite is a mechanical device, consisting of a roller suspended within a tensioned band. As a result of the particular geometry and material properties used, the roller is free to translate with little friction or hysteresis. This device was developed at Sandia National Laboratories. The rolamite, and similar macro-mechanical devices were used in airbags until the mid-1990s when they were universally replaced with MEMS.


title: Airbag

text: Nearly all airbags are designed to automatically deploy in the event of a vehicle fire when temperatures reach 150–200 °C (300–400 °F). This safety feature, often termed auto-ignition, helps to ensure that such temperatures do not cause an explosion of the entire airbag module.


title: Airbag

text: Today, airbag triggering algorithms are becoming much more complex. They try to reduce unnecessary deployments and adapt the deployment speed to the crash conditions. The algorithms are considered valuable intellectual property. Experimental algorithms may take into account such factors as the weight of the occupant, the seat location, seatbelt use, and even attempt to determine if a baby seat is present.


title: Airbag

text: When the frontal airbags are to deploy, a signal is sent to the inflator unit within the airbag control unit. An igniter starts a rapid chemical reaction generating primarily nitrogen gas (N) to fill the airbag making it deploy through the module cover. Some airbag technologies use compressed nitrogen or argon gas with a pyrotechnic operated valve ("hybrid gas generator"), while other technologies use various energetic propellants. Although propellants containing the highly toxic sodium azide (NaN) were common in early inflator designs, little to no toxic sodium azide has been found on used airbags.


title: Airbag

text: The azide-containing pyrotechnic gas generators contain a substantial amount of the propellant. The driver-side airbag would contain a canister containing about 50 grams of sodium azide. The passenger side container holds about 200 grams of sodium azide.


title: Airbag

text: The alternative propellants may incorporate, for example, a combination of nitroguanidine, phase-stabilized ammonium nitrate (NHNO) or other nonmetallic oxidizer, and a nitrogen-rich fuel different from azide (e.g. tetrazoles, triazoles, and their salts). The burn rate modifiers in the mixture may be an alkaline metal nitrate (NO-) or nitrite (NO-), dicyanamide or its salts, sodium borohydride (NaBH), etc. The coolants and slag formers may be e.g. clay, silica, alumina, glass, etc. Other alternatives are e.g. nitrocellulose based propellants (which have high gas yield but bad storage stability, and their oxygen balance requires secondary oxidation of the reaction products to avoid buildup of carbon monoxide), or high-oxygen nitrogen-free organic compounds with inorganic oxidizers (e.g., di or tricarboxylic acids with chlorates (ClO-) or perchlorates (ClO-) and eventually metallic oxides; the nitrogen-free formulation avoids formation of toxic nitrogen oxides).


title: Airbag

text: From the onset of the crash, the entire deployment and inflation process is about 0.04 seconds. Because vehicles change speed so quickly in a crash, airbags must inflate rapidly to reduce the risk of the occupant hitting the vehicle's interior.


title: Airbag

text: Advanced airbag technologies are being developed to tailor airbag deployment to the severity of the crash, the size, and posture of the vehicle occupant, belt usage, and how close that person is to the actual airbag. Many of these systems use multi-stage inflators that deploy less forcefully in stages in moderate crashes than in very severe crashes. Occupant sensing devices let the airbag control unit know if someone is occupying a seat adjacent to an airbag, the mass/weight of the person, whether a seat belt or child restraint is being used, and whether the person is forward in the seat and close to the airbag. Based on this information and crash severity information, the airbag is deployed at either a high force level, a less forceful level, or not at all.


title: Airbag

text: Adaptive airbag systems may utilize multi-stage airbags to adjust the pressure within the airbag. The greater the pressure within the airbag, the more force the airbag will exert on the occupants as they come in contact with it. These adjustments allow the system to deploy the airbag with a moderate force for most collisions; reserving the maximum force airbag only for the severest of collisions. Additional sensors to determine the location, weight or relative size of the occupants may also be used. Information regarding the occupants and the severity of the crash are used by the airbag control unit, to determine whether airbags should be suppressed or deployed, and if so, at various output levels.


title: Airbag

text: A chemical reaction produces a burst of nitrogen to inflate the bag. Once an airbag deploys, deflation begins immediately as the gas escapes through vent(s) in the fabric (or, as it is sometimes called, the cushion) and cools. Deployment is frequently accompanied by the release of dust-like particles, and gases in the vehicle's interior (called effluent). Most of this dust consists of cornstarch, french chalk, or talcum powder, which are used to lubricate the airbag during deployment.


title: Airbag

text: Newer designs produce effluent primarily consisting of harmless talcum powder/cornstarch and nitrogen gas. In older designs using an azide-based propellant (usually NaN), varying amounts of sodium hydroxide nearly always are initially present. In small amounts this chemical can cause minor irritation to the eyes and/or open wounds; however, with exposure to air, it quickly turns into sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). However, this transformation is not 100% complete, and invariably leaves residual amounts of hydroxide ion from NaOH. Depending on the type of airbag system, potassium chloride may also be present.


title: Airbag

text: For most people, the only effect the dust may produce is some minor irritation of the throat and eyes. Generally, minor irritations only occur when the occupant remains in the vehicle for many minutes with the windows closed and no ventilation. However, some people with asthma may develop a potentially lethal asthmatic attack from inhaling the dust.


title: Airbag

text: Because of the airbag exit flap design of the steering wheel boss and dashboard panel, these items are not designed to be recoverable if an airbag deploys, meaning that they have to be replaced if the vehicle has not been written off in a collision. Moreover, the dust-like particles and gases can cause irreparable cosmetic damage to the dashboard and upholstery, meaning that minor collisions which result in the deployment of airbags can be costly, even if there are no injuries and there is only minor damage to the vehicle structure.


title: Airbag

text: On 11 July 1984, the United States government amended Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208 (FMVSS 208) to require cars produced after 1 April 1989 to be equipped with a passive restraint for the driver. An airbag or an automatic seat belt would meet the requirements of the standard. Airbag introduction was stimulated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. However, airbags were not mandatory on light trucks until 1997.


title: Airbag

text: In 1998, FMVSS 208 was amended to require dual front airbags, and reduced-power, second-generation airbags were also mandated. This was due to the injuries caused by first-generation airbags, though FMVSS 208 continues to require that bags be engineered and calibrated to be able to "save" the life of an "unbelted" 50th-percentile size and weight "male" crash test dummy. The technical performance and validation requirements for the inflator assembly used in airbag modules are specified in SAE USCAR 24–2.


title: Airbag

text: Some countries outside North America adhere to internationalized European ECE vehicle and equipment regulations rather than the United States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. ECE airbags are generally smaller and inflate less forcefully than United States airbags because the ECE specifications are based on "belted" crash test dummies.


title: Airbag

text: The Euro NCAP vehicle safety rating encourages manufacturers to take a comprehensive approach to occupant safety; a good rating can only be achieved by combining airbags with other safety features. Almost every new car sold in Europe is equipped with front and side airbags, but in the European Union in 2020 and in the United Kingdom, and most other developed countries there is no direct legal requirement for new cars to feature airbags.


title: Airbag

text: Since January 2014, with the exception of micro vehicles, all new cars made or imported in Argentina must have front airbags.


title: Airbag

text: On 5 March 2021, the Indian Ministry of Road Transport and Highways mandated that all new vehicle models introduced in India after 1 April 2021 have dual front airbags; the regulation also requires that all existing models be equipped with dual front airbags by 31 August 2021.


title: Airbag

text: India also mandated that all passenger vehicles sold after October 2023 must have a minimum of 6 airbags.


title: Airbag

text: Inadvertent airbag deployment while the vehicle is being serviced can result in severe injury, and an improperly installed or defective airbag unit may not operate or perform as intended. Those servicing a vehicle, as well as first responders, must exercise extreme awareness, as many airbag control systems may remain powered for roughly 30 minutes after disconnecting the vehicle's battery. Some countries impose restrictions on the sale, transport, handling, and service of airbags and system components. In Germany, airbags are regulated as harmful explosives; only mechanics with special training are allowed to service airbag systems.


title: Airbag

text: Some automakers (such as Mercedes-Benz) call for the replacement of undeployed airbags after a certain period of time to ensure their reliability in a collision. One example is the 1992 S500, which has an expiry date sticker attached to the door pillar. Some Škoda vehicles indicate an expiry date of 14 years from the date of manufacture. In this case, replacement would be uneconomic as the car would have negligible value at 14 years old, far less than the cost of fitting new airbags. Volvo has stated that "airbags do not require replacement during the lifetime of the vehicle," though this cannot be taken as a guarantee on the device.


title: Airbag

text: Although the millions of installed airbags in use have an excellent safety record, some limitations on their ability to protect car occupants exist. The original implementation of front airbags did little to protect against side collisions, which can be more dangerous than frontal collisions because the protective crumple zone in front of the passenger compartment is completely bypassed. Side airbags and protective airbag curtains are increasingly being required in modern vehicles to protect against this very common category of collisions.


title: Airbag

text: Airbags are designed to deploy once only, so are ineffective if any further collisions occur after an initial impact. Multiple impacts may occur during certain rollover or other incidents involving multiple collisions, such as many multivehicle collisions.


title: Airbag

text: An extremely dangerous situation occurs during "underride collisions", in which a passenger vehicle collides with the rear of a tractor-trailer lacking a rear underride guard, or hits the side of such a trailer not equipped with a side underride guard. The platform bed of a typical trailer is roughly at the head height of a seated adult occupant of a typical passenger car. This means not much of a barrier exists between a head and the edge of the trailer platform, except a glass windshield. In an underride collision, the car's crush zones designed to absorb collision energy are completely bypassed, and the airbags may not deploy in time because the car does not decelerate appreciably until the windshield and roof pillars have already impacted the trailer bed. Even delayed inflation of airbags may be useless because of major intrusion into the passenger space, leaving occupants at high risk of major head trauma or decapitation in even low-speed collisions. Western European standards for underride guards have been stricter than North American standards, which typically have allowed grandfathering of older equipment that may still be on the road for decades.


title: Airbag

text: Typical airbag systems are completely disabled by turning off the ignition key. Unexpected turnoffs usually also disable the engine, power steering, and power brakes, and may be the direct cause of a collision. If a violent collision occurs, the disabled airbags will not deploy to protect vehicle occupants. In 2014, General Motors admitted to concealing information about fatal collisions caused by defective ignition switches that would abruptly shut down a car (including its airbags). Between 13 and 74 deaths have been directly attributed to this defect, depending on how the fatalities are classified.


title: Airbag

text: Under some rare conditions, airbags can injure and in some very rare instances kill vehicle occupants. To provide crash protection for occupants not wearing seat belts, United States airbag designs trigger much more forcefully than airbags designed to the international ECE standards used in most other countries. Recent "smart" airbag controllers can recognize if a seatbelt is used, and alter the airbag cushion deployment parameters accordingly.


title: Airbag

text: In 1990, the first automotive fatality attributed to an airbag was reported. TRW produced the first gas-inflated airbag in 1994, with sensors and low inflation-force bags becoming common soon afterwards. Dual-depth (also known as dual-stage) airbags appeared on passenger cars in 1998. By 2005, deaths related to airbags had declined, with no adult deaths and two child deaths attributed to airbags that year. However, injuries remain fairly common in collisions with airbag deployment.


title: Airbag

text: Serious injuries are less common, but severe or fatal injuries can occur to vehicle occupants very near an airbag or in direct contact when it deploys. Such injuries may be sustained by unconscious drivers slumped over the steering wheel, unrestrained or improperly restrained occupants who slide forward in the seat during precrash braking, and properly belted drivers sitting very close to the steering wheel. A good reason for the driver not to cross hands over the steering wheel, a rule taught to most learner drivers, but quickly forgotten by most, is that an airbag deployment while negotiating a turn may result in the driver's hand(s) being driven forcefully into his or her face, exacerbating any injuries from the airbag alone.


title: Airbag

text: Improvements in sensing and gas-generator technology have allowed the development of third-generation airbag systems that can adjust their deployment parameters to the size, weight, position, and restraint status of the occupant. These improvements have demonstrated a reduced injury risk factor for small adults and children, who had an increased risk of injury with first-generation airbag systems.


title: Airbag

text: One model of airbags made by the Takata Corporation used ammonium nitrate–based gas-generating compositions in airbag inflators instead of the more stable, but more expensive compound tetrazole. The ammonium nitrate-based inflators have a flaw where old inflators with long-term exposure to hot and humid climate conditions could rupture during deployment, projecting metal shards through the airbag and into the driver. As of 2020, the defect has caused sixteen deaths and over 250 injuries in the U.S., and one death in Malaysia. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recalled over 33 million vehicles in May 2015, and fined Takata $70 million in November 2015. Toyota, Mazda, and Honda have said that they will not use ammonium-nitrate inflators.


title: Airbag

text: From 1990 to 2000, the United States NHTSA identified 175 fatalities caused by air bags. Most of these (104) have been children. About 3.3 million air-bag deployments have occurred during that interval, and the agency estimates more than 6,377 lives were saved and countless injuries were prevented.


title: Airbag

text: A rear-facing infant restraint put in the front seat of a vehicle places an infant's head close to the airbag, which can cause severe head injuries or death if the airbag deploys. Some modern cars include a switch to disable the front-passenger airbag, in case a child-supporting seat is used there (although not in Australia, where rear-facing child seats are prohibited in the front where an airbag is fitted).


title: Airbag

text: In vehicles with side airbags, it is dangerous for occupants to lean against the windows, doors, and pillars, or to place objects between themselves and the side of the vehicle. Articles hung from a vehicle's clothes hanger hooks can be hazardous if the vehicle's side-curtain airbags deploy. A seat-mounted airbag may also cause internal injury if the occupant leans against the door.


title: Airbag

text: The aerospace industry and the United States government have applied airbag technologies for many years. NASA and United States Department of Defense have incorporated airbag systems in various aircraft and spacecraft applications as early as the 1960s.


title: Airbag

text: The first use of airbags for landing were Luna 9 and Luna 13, which landed on the Moon in 1966 and returned panoramic images. As with later missions, these would use the airbags to bounce along the surface, absorbing landing energy. The Mars Pathfinder lander employed an innovative airbag landing system, supplemented with aerobraking, parachute, and solid rocket landing thrusters. This prototype successfully tested the concept, and the two Mars Exploration Rover Mission landers employed similar landing systems. The Beagle 2 Mars lander also tried to use airbags for landing; the landing was successful, and the lander touched down safely, but several of the spacecraft's solar panels failed to deploy, thereby disabling the spacecraft.


title: Airbag

text: Airbags have also been used on military fixed-wing aircraft, such as the escape crew capsule of the F-111 Aardvark.


title: Airbag

text: The United States Army has incorporated airbags in its UH-60A/L Black Hawk and OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter fleets. The Cockpit Air Bag System (CABS) consists of forward and lateral airbags, and an inflatable tubular structure (on the OH-58D only) with an Electronic Crash Sensor Unit (ECSU). The CABS system was developed by the United States Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate, through a contract with Simula Safety Systems (now BAE Systems). It is the first conventional airbag system for occupant injury prevention (worldwide) designed and developed and placed in service for an aircraft, and the first specifically for helicopter applications.


title: Airbag

text: In the mid-1970s, the UK Transport Research Laboratory tested several types of motorcycle airbags. In 2006 Honda introduced the first production motorcycle airbag safety system on its Gold Wing motorcycle. Honda claims that sensors in the front forks can detect a severe frontal collision and decide when to deploy the airbag, absorbing some of the forward energy of the rider and reducing the velocity at which the rider may be thrown from the motorcycle.


title: Airbag

text: More commonly, air bag vests – either integrated into the motorcyclist's jacket or worn over it – have started to become used by regular riders on the street. MotoGP has made it compulsory since 2018 for riders to wear suits with integrated airbags.


title: 1995 in film

text: This is a list of films released in 1995. The highly anticipated sequel "Die Hard with a Vengeance" was the year's biggest box-office hit, and "Braveheart" won the Academy Award for Best Picture.


title: Heir presumptive

text: An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question.


title: Heir presumptive

text: Depending on the rules of the monarchy, the heir presumptive might be the daughter of a monarch if males take preference over females and the monarch has no sons, or the senior member of a collateral line if the monarch is childless or the monarch's direct descendants cannot inherit (either because they are daughters and females are completely barred from inheriting, because the monarch's children are illegitimate, or because of some other legal disqualification, such as being descended from the monarch through a morganatic line or the descendant's refusal or inability to adopt a religion the monarch is required to profess).


title: Heir presumptive

text: The subsequent birth of a legitimate child to the monarch may displace the former heir presumptive by creating an heir apparent or a more eligible heir presumptive. It is not assumed that the monarch and his or her consort are incapable of having further children; on the day before Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne, her father George VI was gravely ill and her mother was 51 years old, but Elizabeth was still considered the heir presumptive rather than the heir apparent. An heir presumptive's position may not even be secure after they ascend their throne, as a posthumous child of the previous monarch could have a superseding claim. Queen Victoria's accession proclamation noted her accession was only permanent so long as William IV's widow, Adelaide, was not pregnant, even though Adelaide was 44 years old and had last been pregnant 17 years earlier. Such a situation occurred in Spain in 1885, when King Alfonso XII died and left behind a widow who was three months pregnant. His five-year-old daughter and heir presumptive, María de las Mercedes, was not declared queen because she would be displaced if a son was born, and instead there was a six month interregnum until the birth of her brother Alfonso XIII, who assumed the throne as king immediately upon birth. Had the pregnancy been lost or resulted in another daughter, Mercedes would have become queen regnant and been retroactively recognized as such during the interregnum.


title: Heir presumptive

text: Heir presumptive, like heir apparent, is not a title or position "per se". Rather, it is a general term for a person who holds a certain place in the order of succession. In some monarchies, the heir apparent bears, "ipso facto", a specific title and rank (e.g., Denmark, Netherlands, United Kingdom), this also sometimes being the case for noble titleholders (e.g., Spain, United Kingdom), but the heir presumptive does not bear that title. In other monarchies (e.g., Monaco, Spain) the first in line to the throne bears a specific title (i.e., "Hereditary Prince/Princess of Monaco", "Prince/Princess of Asturias") by right, regardless of whether she or he is heir apparent or heir presumptive.