CALLERS INUNDATE AIR BAG HOTLINE.

Byline: Robyn Meredith The New York Times

As more people have grown concerned about whether the air bags designed to keep them safe in a car crash could accidentally kill them, the Department of Transportation has been flooded with phone calls from people seeking safety advice.

A toll-free telephone line that gives safety tips about air bags has been receiving more than 500 calls daily, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Timothy Hurd, said Saturday.

The safety agency is telling people that they can best protect themselves in a crash by wearing seat belts, sitting as far back from the dashboard as is comfortable and driving with their hands at the 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock positions on the steering wheel. Children under 13 are best protected when they are sitting in the back seat, the agency says, and child seats should never be placed in the front seat.

Air bags do save lives - about 1,600 so far. But the safety agency and the public have grown concerned because air bags have also killed 51 people since 1991 - most of whom were not wearing seat belts, and most of them were children younger than 10 or short women. The safety devices can be dangerous because they shoot out quickly - at up to 200 mph - from steering wheels or the dashboard to protect front seat occupants in a crash.

On Friday, the safety agency outlined a series of steps it plans to take to make air bags safer and to make the public more aware of their dangers. The agency said it would seek to require more sophisticated air bags within two years, to mandate slower-inflating air bags within a year and to allow mechanics to deactivate the devices.

It also plans to extend its policy permitting automakers to install switches that allow drivers to turn off air bags temporarily in vehicles without back seats, and it will require that new cars and trucks have flashier warning labels.

``Everyone agrees that air bags enhance safety,'' said Dr. Ricardo Martinez, administrator of the safety agency. ``But we have to improve the performance to minimize the risk to children and some adults.''

One decision that car owners will soon face is whether to ask a mechanic to disconnect the air bags.

Safety experts, government officials and automobile industry executives concur that this would be a bad idea for nearly everyone.

``We know that air bags provide a net benefit,'' said Robert Lange, the director of vehicle development methodology and laboratories for General Motors Corp. ``We are very concerned about people making the wrong decision.''