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School me on airbags....

MaxCrack said:
You were NOT wearing your seat belts? Dumbasses, buckle up. If it was a few more miles an hour you would probably be dead. As it is I'm surprised no one was seriously hurt. BUCKLE UP, it saves lives. Now with that out of the way...
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If I may interject and be devil's advocate, and stray from the point, I dont think you have any place to call someone a dumbass for not wearing a seatbelt. Buckling up, while saving SOME lives, can also kill. Case in point: my accident in November of 2003. Due to an impact with a deer, I hit a 4 ft. in diameter tree doing 75-80 miles an hour. The vehicle was a 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I was NOT wearing my seatbelt and was thrown from the vehicle. The impact was such that, when I was thrown out, I ripped the steering wheel off the steering column and took it out of the vehicle with me. The airbags did deploy and, while burning me in two large places, breaking my nose and swelling up both of my eyes, probably saved me from having serious injury on the initial impact.

Now to the point of this rant. If I had been wearing my seatbelt I would have not been thrown from the car and would have been crushed when the roof made impact with the tree. Or, if that isnt enough, I would have been impaled by a tree limb that came through the windshield and went through the back of the drivers seat. All because of a SAFETY belt.

To end all this, dont judge people and call them names due to the fact that they do or do not wear a seatbelt. They arent always what theyre cracked up to be.
 
dyeager535 said:
I think maybe it is correct.
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Saying that an airbag doesn't do much if you are wearing your seatbelt is a rediculous statement. If that was true, they would not have mandated them.
 
chevyguybc said:
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/BF0F2FBE-E1F0-4E9E-BE5D-01ADC03D0219.htm
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This video is obviously staged. If you watch the airbags deploy, they are very slow. I have seen airbags deploy twice and they are instantaneous. As a firefighter for 13 years I have seen the adverse effects of not wearing seatbelts. True in a very tiny percentage, seatbelts have been a cause of death or serious injury but for 99% of crashes, belts save lives.

Also, If I were driving a vehicle equipped with airbags, I would definately throw on a belt because those accident victims who have had their bags deploy without a seatbelt definately had a bad day.
 
I am half and half on the seatbelt thing. Had a friend years ago get into a bad accident and was thrown from the car. Had he stayed in the car, he would be dead today..

I try and wear my seltbelt more often since the accident...
 
My friend is dead because he was thrown from the car, most people that stay in the car are better off. There's always that freak stroke of luck, but your odds are way better belted in.
 
Leper said:
Saying that an airbag doesn't do much if you are wearing your seatbelt is a rediculous statement. If that was true, they would not have mandated them.
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The initial comment was "Air bags were initially designed to protect someone who was NOT wearing their seat belt."

No one (at least not me) is saying that airbags don't do anything if you are wearing your seatbelt. YOU said that they were initially designed to be used in conjunction with seatbelts, and that doesn't seem to be the case.

NOW they are supplemental to the seatbelt, initially it appears they were being designed to negate the need for a seatbelt, (which is what we were commenting on) likely because seatbelts require the operator to use them to work.
 
TTT
I hit an Elk with my '95 'Burb @ ~65mph while towing my boat. It was a cow, big and fat, and I hit her with the main impact right on the D.side frame runner. Tolk out the fender, A/C con., Rad., bumper, hood, PS pump, ect. ect. This was a HARD SUDEN impact to the frame, (it bent that front horn just a little) and NO air bag. I asked at GM, 'caus I was a little cocerned about 'em. The best anser they could muster for me was "It takes the right peramiters to set them off" me:"OK, I can understand that. What are some of those peramiters" them:"it's technical" me:"I'm not a compleat idot, try me" them:"we don't have time for this now, do you want the A/C serviced or not?!?":mad::mad:
 
air bag deployment is determined but deceleration forces.if the truck didnt slow down fast enough they will not deploy.the dodge in the picture hit in the softest part of the front end giving the truck time to slow down without deploying the bag.the impact forces required to deploy bags is set higher than when they 1st came out to keep unneeded deployments down and to save on repair cost-guess who wanted that??.just because the front of a vechicle takes a hit doesnt mean the bags will deploy.
 
For you people making claims that not wearing your seatbelt saved your life........you are still idiots.

1. You are simply speculating that wearing your seatbelt would have caused death or more injury........you simply don't know what would have happened otherwise. The vehicle exploding into flames is about the only way you can say this is true/possible.

2. Statistics show that you are much, much, much more likely to die withOUT a seatbelt on. The chances of serious injury, or level of injury, is also much much greater without a seatbelt.

In general, on modern vehicles the airbags are designed to work in conjucture with the seatbelts.

http://www.iihs.org/research/qanda/airbags.html
 
Now to the point of this rant. If I had been wearing my seatbelt I would have not been thrown from the car and would have been crushed when the roof made impact with the tree. Or, if that isnt enough, I would have been impaled by a tree limb that came through the windshield and went through the back of the drivers seat. All because of a SAFETY belt.
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I bet you still put your seat-belt on regulry after that experience. Most people that have actually experienced a bad crash do. I think everyone that gets a driver license should be strapped into a car, and driven straight into a brick wall at about 10 MPH. This will teach them the reality of what it is like to be in a crash. Most people, who do not wear their seat-belts, have never been in a crash, and have no concept of what it is like. I have been strapped into a Funny Car, which was skidding, flipping, spinning, bouncing of the gaurdrails, throwing parts, sparks, and flames (with the fire bottles going off) at 180 + MPH, and I damn sure know what G-Forces can do to the human body. Because of all the saftey gear I was wearing, I did not recieve a scratch, but I was black and blue from head to toe for weeks after, just due the shear G-Force of it all.
 
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Hey 6.2 Blazer,

I guess you know my circumstances and those of my accident so YOU can tell ME that I dont know I would have been killed. I guess you were also there when the state trooper told my parents that if I hadnt have been thrown out of the vehicle I would be dead. Maybe, better yet, you were also there when the Medevac pilot told me and my parents that, had I been stuck in the vehicle, there was no way I would have even survived the flight to the hospital. Or maybe I just know that, every day when I look in the mirror and see that big scar on my throat where they had to trach me on the scene because I stopped breathing, I am very lucky to be alive and dont question it either way.

Sometimes you should think about what youre saying before you say it, otherwise you look like a totall a$$hole.
 
Back to the question. The airbag deploy algorithm is a closely guarded industry secret. There are no bumper sensors for current production models. They were used in some early GM vehicles. These were the cars that popped when a parking block was hit in driveways. Generally speaking, the airbag deploy sensor is a single axis [FONT=&quot]accelerometer[/FONT]. There are two if you have side impact airbags.

Pole strikes are the worst.:yikes: Airbags deploy based on the change in velocity, not impact speed. Some check to see if seatbelts are used prior to deployment.

The change in velocity of a pole strike is much different than a solid barrier impact. :screwy: The change in velocity of a pole impact starts small and then dramatically increases as time passes. The delay in this change in velocity occurring late in the collision may cause the airbag not to deploy. The driver/passenger move too close to the airbag for the airbag to deploy during pole strikes. An airbag deploying late can result in serious injury or death to the occupant.

Looking at the picture, that pole strike is pretty minor. (Not too minor when you have the E ticket and front row seats.) The bumper is folding into the hood and the engine is finally struck. The time it takes to get to the engine is milliseconds, possibly too late for the airbag to deploy.

The moral of the story: Hit something other than a pole and drive the biggest vehicle.

Just my $0.02.
 
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