1-Year-Old Decapitated By Safety Bag Fender-Bender Triggers Tragedy; Callers Alarmed

Local health officials and the city’s Volkswagen dealer were deluged on Wednesday with telephone calls from motorists concerned about air bag safety following the air bag decapitation of a 1-year-old in a parking lot fender-bender.

Police said the child was in a forward-facing child safety seat Tuesday night when her 21-year-old mother, Rebecca Blackman, rear-ended a car that had just entered the Boise Towne Square Mall parking lot. The impact deployed the passenger-side air bag at a force of 200 mph, decapitating the child and throwing her head through the broken door window onto the parking lot.

“This is as traumatic as a family or police officer could experience,” police Lt. Tim Rosenvall said.

Pre-Thanksgiving shoppers shivered against the 28-degree weather as the accident scene was secured and police tried to console the toddler’s hysterical mother.

“If it weren’t for the air bag, no one would have been hurt,” said Marianne Keebey, a family friend.

On Wednesday, members of the American Association of Retired Persons manned the interstate highway rest area just east of Boise and passed out air bag safety brochures to holiday travelers.

“We’re getting tons of phone calls,” said Nancy Rush, the community health education coordinator for the area health district. “They’re very concerned. Parents want to protect their kids, and they’re pretty horrified that a parent who was trying to protect her child had such a gruesome accident.”

The accident underscored the advice of federal safety officials and others that children under 12 should always ride in the back seat.

“It blows me away that people drive all the time with kids in the front seat or not in car seats at all,” said Paul Mitchell of Portland, who pulled off at the Boise rest stop with his two daughters, ages 2 and 4, strapped into rear-seat child restraints.

Rosenvall said the nature of the accident indicated Blackman was not driving fast, and damage to the 1996 four-door Volkswagen Jetta was the broken passenger-side window and a broken turn-signal light.

Investigators had not determined whether the car seat was properly secured.

But Rush said that after speaking to police on Wednesday, “it appears the child was placed properly in the seat, as a 1-year-old facing forward.”

Motorists contacted Treasure Valley Volkswagen throughout the day, worried about the safety of air bags.

“People want to know what it takes to have their air bags disconnected and we can’t do that legally,” service manager Cary Harp said.

Most calls were referred to the corporate headquarters in Auburn, Mich., which issued a statement expressing sympathy for the child’s family and declining to speculate on any aspect of the accident.

“Volkswagen has offered its expertise to help determine what specifically occurred,” the statement said.

A team of federal investigators was also sent to Boise to look into the accident.

While air bags have been credited with markedly reducing traffic fatalities in the country, since 1993 they have been blamed for the deaths of 31 other children and 20 adults in low-speed crashes they could have otherwise survived.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is now requiring strongly worded warning labels in new cars and is considering other changes, including bags that deploy less forcefully.