Political Quotes

“To Members of the Senate, this is a deflated airbag that has already exploded. If you can see, this part is the center of the steering wheel. In this case, this happens to be a Honda; here is the letter ``h.'' This would be sitting right in front of you in the steering wheel. When you have an accident, if it is of sufficient impact, it is going to cause the airbag to inflate. This is designed as a lifesaver. This explosive device inside the airbag, and the gas compound in there is ammonium nitrate. If it is defective, when the explosion occurs, the hot gases that are released from the compound come out through these little holes around the side, and that inflates the airbag. But what has happened and has caused almost 20 million cars to be recalled is that the hot gases are exploding in this device with such force that it is causing the metal to break and come out in the inflated bag with such force, tearing through the bag, as this particular bag shows--it has a big hole in it. Here is the hole where the metal came out. It is like a grenade exploding in front of you, in your steering wheel, with shrapnel going into the people who are driving or who are in the passenger seat with the dashboard airbag. We are finding out now that a few months ago there was the explosion of side airbags in some of the cars, in the doors. Lo and behold, that is throwing out shrapnel as well. I want to show the Senate what it is like when these inflators explode.…”