WEIGHT SENSOR ON PASSENGER SEAT MAY ALLEVIATE CHILD AIR BAG DEATHS.

Byline: Catherine O'Brien Associated Press 

Trying to prevent more child deaths from inflating air bags, highway safety officials are exploring whether weight sensors could be used to shut off air bags when small children occupy passenger seats.

As the number of youngsters killed by air bags mounts - so far 30 children's deaths are attributed to the devices - officials are pushing automakers to come up with a viable solution.

Manufacturers warn that highly sophisticated sensing systems will not appear in air bags until the next century. Those systems would use technologies such as infrared or ultrasound to detect passengers who are out of proper position on the seat and automatically adjust air bag deployment to protect them.

But for now, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is considering whether a weight-sensor device used in German luxury cars to prevent air bag deployment in an unoccupied seat can be adapted to save lives. The goal would be to shut off an air bag for a person weighing 66 pounds or less, the weight of an average 10-year-old.

Mercedes-Benz uses a pressure-sensitive mat in the passenger seat of its 1996 E-class automobiles. The mat sends a shutoff signal to the air bag firing device when the seat is unoccupied. BMW has used a similar mat in its vehicles since January 1995.

The current mat, intended only to detect the vacant seat, sends a signal to prevent the bag from deploying when the seat holds less than 26 pounds. It was installed not for safety but to avoid the hefty cost of replacing an unnecessarily inflated air bag.

But the safety administration wants to know if the system can be adapted to prevent child deaths.

``We're interested in technology that can be brought to the marketplace soon,'' said William Boehly, the agency's associate administrator for research and development.

Engineers from International Electronics & Engineering, maker of the Mercedes mat, are working on pressure-sensitive mats that can detect broad weight categories - a child, for example, or a slender female or an average male.

But John Abraham, director of sales for IEE Automotive USA, said auto companies have not decided to use the weight-category design yet because they are waiting to see if the federal administration adopts 66 pounds or another national standard for air bag suppression.

``We're still taking a look at weight sensing, but we believe it is a very good short-term approach,'' said Dave Giroux, safety spokesman at Ford Motor Co.