Do airbags deploy when the car is hit at an angle?

Question

My brother was driving down a straight road probably at around 40-45 mph when all of a sudden a car made a left turn and my brother crashed into the other car while it was turning. The other car was hit on the driver side door and the air bags deployed, while my brother's 2006 Ford Five Hundred did a frontal crash (probably also angled since the driver side front light was damaged) and the airbags weren't deployed. Were the airbags suppose to deploy, after all, the Ford hit the other car while going straight forward?

Answer 1

The main word is "angled"...................

Airbags deploy only when they might be needed to prevent serious injury.

Frontal driver and passenger airbags are designed to inflate in moderate to severe "frontal crashes" equivalent to hitting a solid barrier at 10-12 mph.

Some manufacturers use different inflation thresholds depending on whether people are using their safety belts.

Thresholds of 10-12 mph typically are used for unbelted occupants, but thresholds are higher — about 16 mph — for belted occupants because the belts alone are likely to provide adequate protection up to these moderate speeds.

Answer 2

I feel a malfunction happened. It should have been deployed.