After the infamous Takata air bag recall that seems to be ongoing, a flip side. I look forward to reading more about why none went off as claimed, and if they can establish it was a failure or they worked as they should have (eg did not fire under the circumstances of the specific collision), looking beyond the driver error that led to the rear ender.
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Did somebody say FCA?
Just like Jeep all over again.
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Airbags are designed not to go off in rear end collisions…it will be interesting if her legal action gets any mileage once they realise that is the case…
Front airbags will not be deployed in the event of a side or rear end collision or in a rollover as they would provide no additional protection (one of numerous sources with similar information)
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From a US law firm that specialises in accident litigation, who would have thought such a good explanation…
One of the primary differences between rear-end collisions and other types of auto accidents is the mechanism of injury. In Georgia, the person who is driving their vehicle into the rear-end of someone’s vehicle is almost certainly going to be the fault for causing the wreck. Certainly, there are some exceptions to that such as when a person in front must brake without warning or some other type of dangerous maneuver. Ironically, the person in front is more likely to be injured in a wreck than the person in behind who is driving the front end of their car into the rear-end of another vehicle. This will likely cause the airbags of the rear car to deploy which is going to cushion their body in a collision and can limit injury.
The forces in effect on the car that is being rear-ended, however, are much more complex. What happens to the person in the vehicle in front is that they first have a frontal acceleration which will push the body backwards into the car seat. At some point, the back of the head is going to flip backwards, and it may hit the headrest but not always. But at some point, the head is going to be stretched as far back as it can go and it’s going to then start snapping forward. This “whipping” motion is what gives this type of injury its name: Whiplash.
In a lot of rear-end collisions, the front car does not actually have the airbag deployed. The reason for this is that the computer in that front car takes measurements on the speed and force of the impact and can decide that the airbag deploying is not going to protect the passengers in that front car more than the risk of injury from the airbag itself. That’s because when an airbag deploys, it’s a dangerous, explosive event. This means that whenever an airbag deploys the car’s computer must decide whether the risk of an airbag deploying is outweighed by the benefit of the airbag. As a result, many times in a rear-end collision, the airbags don’t deploy in that front car.
As said above, this process of the head going backward and then forwards has a name that most people are familiar with called “Whiplash.” The mechanism of injury in going backwards and forwards is one of the many reasons why people get injured in car wrecks. One of the other things that makes someone more likely to be injured in a rear-end collision is if their head is turned and looking to the left or the right. The head is much more able to flex forwards and backwards when your head is straight when you are looking forward. When your head is looking to the left or right like when you are looking to turn, and you are rear-ended, you are much more likely to be injured due to the position of the head. In simple terms, your head is not made to bend forward while it is turned to the side.
At least a few of us may be getting some good education on the efficacy or lack thereof of airbags, and the why in this case.
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The other factor is the timing of airbag release is based on the forward movement of a person in the event of an accident. Their effectiveness is only for a very short time (10s of milliseconds) - some airbags are designed to last longer such as curtain airbags in the even of a rollover). If the airbag deployed during a rear accident, the body moves backwards (as indicated above) and then forward (this video shows examples in the US IIHS test laboratory). The additional time for the body to travel back and then forward possibly could be outside the optimum time for the protection of the airbag…as it would have started to deflate by the time the head strikes the airbag.
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The flip side if they all had deployed causing ‘no additional driver/passenger protection’, there could be argument that the vehicle cost far more to repair than would be otherwise the case. The additional costs would be reflected in higher insurance premiums.
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