An odd flip-flop on air bags: the U.S. auto industry, which didn't want them, wants the government to stop people from disabling them. Meanwhile the government, which forced them on the industry, is looking for ways to let people turn them off.

As off April 15, 1997, air bags have killed 29 children, 22 drivers, nine infants in rear-facing car seats, and three adult passengers -- for a total of 63 deaths.

General Motors safety expert Leonard Evans broke with the industry and came up with these arguments in a recent piece printed in the Washington Times:

• He challenges auto industry claims that air bags have saved 1,700 lives, calling the figure "an inference calculated from an estimated effectiveness," and points out that no one can identify "even one individual whose life was saved by an air bag."

• Since people often drive more aggressively if they feel safer in their cars, air bags may be leading to more deaths by giving drivers a false sense of security.

• Because air bags provide only a small amount of extra protection in a crash, a driver could easily cancel that out by going as little as two miles an hour faster.

• Putting children in the back seat, as the auto industry advises, could lead to even more crashes -- since parents are more likely to take their eyes off the road to check on the child.

As for how air bags discriminate, the government's own research shows they present greater dangers to children, the elderly and short drivers -- a total or more than one-quarter of the U.S. population.

Source: Editorial, "Air Bags: Mandating a Muddle," Investor's Business Daily, June 13, 1997.