airbag deployment

[Brett Hartwig]

I have a friend who was recently involved in a rear end collision at highway speeds. She was driving a 2001 Chevy Impala, was rear ended by a Dodge Neon( she was stopped, Neon was going 55mph) and she was pushed into a truck in front of her. Question is- no front airbag deployment. Why would the front airbags not have been deployed when she was pushed into the truck in front of her? It was hard enough to cause moderate damage to the rear of that truck so shouldn't they have deployed? thanks in advance

 

[Nelson Atwell]

Airbags are designed to deploy during frontal collisions. Chances are, your friend would have had additional injuries from the airbag hitting her in the face if it had deployed. It sounds like the frontal impact wasn't enough to need the airbags.



Was she injured badly? I hope she is OK.

 

[Tom Schindler]

As Nelson said. Airbags are designed to deploy under certain circumstances. If those are not met, the airbags will not deploy.





Tom

 

[Thomas Rogers]

As Nelson said it takes a significant frontal impact for an airbag to deploy, typically one well above that which would do only "moderate" damage. I had a 2000 Impala in which I was rear-ended 3 different times, each time with minimal to no damage, and in none of them did the car that hit me deploy its airbag.



Also, my father was killed when a vehicle struck his passenger van, striking it at an angle on the front drivers corner. No airbag deployed in his van, though it was equipped, and that hit was very significant (it drove the door post and steering column into him, pinning him in the seat). The problem there was the angle...it wasn't a straight on hit.



So, to review, it takes a significant hit, and that hit has to be almost straight on.



TJR

 

[Ben Poche]

i think you need to be over 35 mph for the bags to deploy my inlaws were in the same situation and no bags,and they questioned it and they were told the 35 mph thing.

 

[2]

I agree with all of the above. Airbag sensors measure the rate of de-acceleration, and will only deploy if that rate is high enough.

 

[Mark Johnson]

The black box will record the crash data to identify if the air bag should have deployed or not. The box will "wake-up" during rapid acceleration/deceleration; about .7g's. The dealer or automotive engineer/expert can down load the data, if you feel the bags failed. Front air bags will typically deploy during an impact from 30 degrees on center. The impact must however be at or above 1g. The air bag sensors are not "speed sensitive." Every GM vehicle will have a black box and some go as far back as 1986. Rule of thumb; if you have a bag, you have a box. The manfactures don't want to get sued. I hope everyone is okay.

 

[George Anderson]

I was involved in a similar accident in my Lincoln LS. I was stopped, idiot was going freeway speed, he hit the brakes about 30 feet behind me. Hit my LS flush in the rear. $4000 damage to me, don't know how much to his Jeep Liberty but we both were able to drive away. No airbags deployed, in either vehicle.