Airbag Detonation speeds?!?!?!?!?!

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Airbag Detonation speeds?!?!?!?!?!

T

Tony

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Firstly, sorry to hear about the Bravo Si, only had a quick look a week last sat, it looked the b'lox, hope it's sorted soon.

In answer to your question about airbag detonation, I asked Fiat this question a couple of years ago. In July '99, i drove my previous bravo, a 96 1.4sx, through an extremely mature hedgerow. I took out 4 stumps of hedge, and because the verge was higher than the field, had the car airbourne. I stopped in the field about 200 yards in. At the time i lost control, i was clocking 94 mph (yes i know i was a ****!)

The hedge stumps struck the car dead central, yet i wasn't met by the glorious sight of an airbag! (and incidentally, when the recovery driver got in, he just started the car, the fire prevention switch hadn't fired either!!!!!!)

The car was repaired at an insurance cost of £4100 !!!!

In April of the next year (2000), I managed to park the same car in the back of a Nissan Micra on a roundabout! the damage was on the passengers half of the front bumper, The n/s chasis leg snapped at the suspension mount due to weakening from the 1st accident, and yet again no airbag or fire prevention.!!!! Impact speed was 35 - 40 mph.

Ironically, the Micra was being driven by my best mate, it was his mum's, who'd just gone on holiday, he wasn't supposed to use the car (but was insured), he got it fixed at a back street garage before she got home!) To top it all, the bloody thing was bright yellow!!!

The cost of the second repair was £4800 plus 2 personal accident claims! My next year premium went up from £500 to £1900, and only 6 out of 53 insurance companies my broker deals with would return a quote.

The point of this post is two-fold;

1: PLEASE, everyone, be careful in your precious Bravo's, I've now got a lovely 99 1.6 HLX, with a few mods, and i drive like miss daisy (most of the time)

2: Has anyone else had airbag non-occurances (or the fire prevention?)?? Do the bloody things work at all?? I haven't got any faith in them at all, if it won't go off when it should, what's to stop it firing when i'm hapily cruising down the M1??

P.S., sorry about the essay!
 
Only fires when deceleration is massive.

The point of the airbag is to stop your face hitting the steering wheel. The car has to hit something very solid to make it fire. Hedges will not fire it, nor will armco barriers; they are meant to be soft.
I have had a car where the roof has been cut off by Trumpton to get a whiplash victim out but the air bag has not fired due to the angle of the accident.
Conversly, an almost undamaged car with the bag inflated because the two cars managed to strike at precisley the towing points (which are heavily strengthened)
 
Re: Only fires when deceleration is massive.

brad's right: it's not the speed of the collision that fires the airbags, it's the rate of deceleration. Also, most cars have 4 sensors, which all monitor deceleration and angle of force to try and predict the type of accident you're having: it's critical to firing the bags at the right time.

If you didn't break your face on the steering wheel in either accident, then there was no need for the airbags to fire: were you (relatively) unscathed?
 

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