How are air bags designed to protect me in a car collision?

How are air bags designed to protect me in a car collision?

The way air bags are designed is for adults is with the shoulder-lap belt holding the person in place and then the air bag coming to spread forces to the person's head, chest, and so forth. This is as well as keeping the air bag and the passenger somewhat apart until the air bag is fully deployed, and some of the ride-down has occurred from the belt system. So, although air bag systems now have sensors to sense whether there's somebody who is 'too light' (in other words, a child is in that position, so the air bag is turned off automatically) we still don't want to see children rear-facing in front of a passenger air bag unless it is directly switched off. Part of the reason it's really good to have the sensors for passenger air bags is there are many occasions in which no one is sitting in the front seat, and there's no reason to have that passenger air bag deploy for your groceries, or your woman's purse, or a set of books that might be sitting there.