DEATH OF IDAHO GIRL PROMPTS AIR BAG INQUIRY.

Byline: The New York Times

As teams organized by the federally sanctioned Air Bag Safety Campaign distributed leaflets Wednesday to motorists at highway rest stops, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration dispatched an investigator to Boise, Idaho, to investigate the decapitation of a 1-year-old girl by a front-seat air bag in a low-speed accident Tuesday night.

The authorities in Boise have not been able to determine whether the child seat in which the victim, Alexandra Greer, was riding was strapped to the passenger seat of the Volkswagen Jetta, Lt. Tim Rosenvall of the Boise Police Department said Wednesday. The police, he said, expect to interview the parties involved in the accident over the next several days, including the victim's mother, Rebecca Blackman, 21, who was driving the car.

In Washington, D.C., the federal highway safety agency hired a California-based contractor to fly to Boise and ``learn about the accident,'' Timothy Hurd, an agency spokesman, said. Hurd and traffic safety experts declined to discuss the Boise accident, saying the facts remained sketchy, as well as its implications, if any, in the debate over air bag safety unclear. But all said the toddler's death carried one unmistakable message.

``The overall advice for people - children under 12 should be in the back seat,'' Hurd said. ``That's the safest place for everybody.''

The accident occurred just four days after the federal agency made a series of moves intended to make future generations of air bags safer and to raise public awareness of the dangers of air bags.

On Friday, the agency announced that it would try to require automobile makers to install more advanced air bags within two years as part of a program to reduce the danger the devices pose for children and small adults. The agency also proposed requiring slower-inflating air bags within a year and allowing mechanics to disable the devices in some instances.

The federal agency, a unit of the Department of Transportation, also said it planned to extend its policy of permitting auto makers to install switches that let drivers disable air bags in vehicles without back seats. The agency also wants to require new cars and trucks to have warning labels that are easier for motorists to see inside vehicles.

While the National Transportation Safety Board endorsed the highway agency's proposed new rules for the design of air bags and the push for better warning labels, the board nevertheless expressed some disappointment last week.

``While I am pleased the NHTSA has taken necessary action on air bag warning labels, I am disappointed the the NHTSA did not reach a conclusion on how it intends to revise air bag test procedures,'' Jim Hall, safety board chairman, said Friday. ``As a result, it could be close to a year before any changes are made to the air bags in cars being built for the American public. Meanwhile we add another 1 million vehicles each month with air bag technology that is not safe for everybody.''