U.S. automakers have unveiled draft guidelines for the testing of side airbags to reduce the risk of an injury to small women or children in case of an accident. The new, voluntary guidelines provide a minimum standard for the safety of side airbags in worst-case scenarios, seeking to ensure their deployment incurs less than 5 percent chance of serious head, neck or chest injury even if a vehicle’s occupants are seriously out of position. Testing procedures that manufacturers should use in designing systems to meet that standard include 15 separate crash-test positions for dummies representing 3- and 6-year-old children and a small woman. Side airbags have provided sufficient protection in actual crashes by largely avoiding inadvertent injuries to passengers, according to findings by an auto industry technical group. So far, safety regulators have found no fatalities, and only one serious injury, attributable to the deployment of a side airbag. About 100 of 250 new vehicle models currently offer side airbags as an option or standard equipment, and the number is expected to grow.