Decorative objects on car steering wheels can threaten the driver's life
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) warns that installing decorative objects on the steering wheel can cause fatal accidents.
The recent incident of a decorative logo on the steering wheel when the airbag exploded, causing a female driver in the US to have bruises on her thigh and a piece of debris stuck to the door panel, made many people "shudder". This female driver was still lucky that the metal fragment did not hit any important parts of her body.
A Mercedes-Benz whose owner decorated the steering wheel with stones
Specifically, in the video posted on social media, a warning line is written below, saying "Do not put glitter on your steering wheel". The woman said the airbag deployed, causing the glitter decoration attached to the center of the Nissan's steering wheel to fly out and hit her left thigh, while a piece of debris embedded deep into the soft plastic trim on the car door.
This is a serious issue that the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has warned about before, after a driver was seriously injured due to his hobby of adding decorations to his steering wheel. The most serious incident was at the end of 2023, when a driver lost an eye due to an airbag deployment, causing a rhinestone decoration on the steering wheel to fly out and hit his eye.
Steering wheel decoration badges can be easily purchased on e-commerce platforms. They often have fake diamonds made of plastic or just have a different color than the usual chrome-plated steering wheel badges. This is also a widely sold item in the Vietnamese market and is used by many car owners.
Sparkling car steering wheel decorations are easily found on e-commerce platforms.
According to NHTSA, the accessory can dislodge, break, and fly off the steering wheel when the airbag deploys at extremely high speeds, possibly as fast as a bullet. The agency said it has received multiple reports of injuries related to these accessories, including one case where two pieces of the badge flew off and became lodged deep in the driver’s neck and face.
In fact, car manufacturers are very careful when designing airbags when the car is in a collision with the process of deploying according to many specific scenarios to ensure the best safety for the people in the car, so any object in the trajectory of the airbag creates serious risks. But in reality, many people still like to decorate their car steering wheels and often buy items according to their preferences and attach them without regard to the safety of themselves and their passengers.
Steering wheel accessories are often made of very hard rhinestones or similar decorations and are usually only attached with glue, which can easily fly off when the airbag deploys. Meanwhile, the car company logo on the steering wheel is fixed and sturdy, designed not to fly off in the event of an airbag deployment. But the accessories that drivers install themselves are different.
Women often prefer car steering wheel decorations.
In Vietnam, users can easily find sparkling logo decorations on steering wheels, for all car brands, sold widely on online electronic markets. This is a decoration quite popular with female drivers who love jewelry-like accessories.
For men in Vietnam, although they do not usually decorate their steering wheels, they still often install other accessories on the dashboard such as car models, religious statues, decorative rocking animals... even air purifiers in areas where airbags are located.
