The New York times reports:
A driver’s risk of being killed in a side-impact crash decreases by more than a third if the vehicle has head-protecting side-curtain air bags, a study of accident data by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows. Automakers have agreed to make side-curtain air bags standard equipment in all vehicles by 2010. For the 2006 model year, some type of side air bag is available on 79 percent of models.