Air bags did't go off. Professional advise only please.

Question

I was in an accident. I read-ended a lady. They slamed on thier brakes about 75 feet in front of a stop sign for no reason. No drivers lisence, all that good stuff. But i hit the car pretty hard. I have a 2005 Honda Accord that was certified when we got it. The air bags didn't go off and even the police said they should have. I hit them that hard. We have called Honda and they told us to get with our Insurence company. Which we have. But i'm only wondering what is going to come of this? If the airbad had a defect when we bought it no one informed us. If I didn't have my seatbelt on i easily could have gone through the windshield...i just don't know what will come of this..

Answer 1

The air bag (SRS) doesn't usually arm until the speed of the car reaches 15 mph. It's not the force of the crash that causes deployment but the sudden negative acceleration factor and the ANGLE of the collision that makes them go 'boom!'. If you were traveling 20 mph and hit the brakes it's very possible that the car was only going 10 mph or so when you hit. Don't worry about going through the windsheild, it's bonded in much too strong -- besides,  the seatbelts are MUCH better protection in a crash than airbags. Think about it -- there must be a million cars driving around out there that have NO airbags at all and I doubt you will ever see a belted passenger ever launched through the windsheild.

Answer 2

You have two recalls for this vehicle that you need to have checked out at the dealership for airbags.......

Recall ID # 07V001000 - AIR BAGS:FRONTAL:SENSOR/CONTROL MODULE

Recall ID # 04V551000 - AIR BAGS:FRONTAL  

Answer 3

How fast were you going?

Air bags go off at roughly 40mph onwards. Your seatbelt pretensioners would have gone off, which shorten the seatbelt which hold you in your seat.

Answer 4

The fact that you're alive to tell the tale proves that the airbags made the right decision.   Everybody thinks the airbags should always go off, like they're some magic that'll always save you.  

They are nothing like that.  Airbags going off are like Mike Tyson hitting you full power in the chest.  They can beat you up pretty bad, break wrists, break arms, cause internal bruising.  They SHOULDN'T go off unless the collision is so bad that the alternative would be much worse.

If you didn't have your seat belt on, your airbag is even more likely to injure you.  Again, it's a question of the lesser of two evils.  You really hurt your chances of survival by not wearing a seat belt.  A seat belt without airbags is safer than airbags without a seat belt.

Replacing airbags also costs thousands of dollars, enough to push a damaged car over the edge into being "totaled".

Answer 5

I don't think you were going fast enough to deploy the bags.