How does air bags work? How do they reduce injury?

Question

How does air bags work? How do they reduce injury?

Answer 1

How do they reduce injury? Rather hit a big bag full of air or a steering wheel at 50 MPH?

Answer 2

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.

They keep you from killing yourself.

Answer 3

huh

Answer 4

Airbags are nothing more than a bag that fills up extremely fast when a crash is detected. They also almost immediately deflate distributing the energy of your body over a larger area, reducing injury. In order to do this, they fill with hot gas, which can cause a burn on your face, but that is better than getting an imprint of a steering wheel on you when they take you to the morgue and on the passenger side, going through the windshield.

Answer 5

The airbag system has at least 2 switches.  they are sealed and have a steel gold plated ball stuck to a magnet.  you have to hit something hard enough to break the ball loose from the magnet and roll forward and contact the 2 gold contacts at the other end.   Both switches have to contact at the same time to avoid accidental deployment.

Answer 6

I found out the answer to this question 3 days ago.

That's right...an accident (high velocity). I hit another vehicle (chain reaction collision) at approximately 40 mph. My airbags (both of them) deployed. The airbags deployed and deflated in less than 2 seconds. They were there and gone...faster than I could comprehend that they were there in the first place.

I was wearing my seatbelt.

The hit from the airbag was painful. It felt like I was kicked in the chest by a horse. My airbag caught me in the throat and chest. However, I did not move. The seatbelt locked and restrained me and the airbag made sure that I was not going any further than the 2 inch leeway the seatbelt had before it locked.

Yes, it hurt. Yes, I'm glad my truck has them. Yes, I'm extremely glad that I walked away from this wreck with only a sore shoulder and friction burns on my throat and chest. I did have some difficulty breathing immediately after the wreck but there are some fumes from the deployment that dissipate pretty quickly. Now, I'm just sore and happy to be alive.

My truck, on the other hand, is in the shop for an extended stay (about 3-4 weeks) while it is repaired...including new airbags.

When sensors in the bumper detect a collision, before the bumper even starts to crumple, the airbags have deployed and are in direct line with the driver. As the driver slams forward, the airbag stops them, venting nitrogen gas at the same time to ensure the gentlest possible impact (but it's still a hard impact). Before the vehicle has rolled to a stop, the airbags have deflated, releasing the driver from the momentary restraint they provided. Injuries are often drastically reduced and many people survive accidents that would have fatal without them.

Airbags can and do cause injury. However, think about the alternative. Most common are burns, "road rash", broken nose or teeth, biting your lip, broken hands or arms and chest or throat contusions. That beats life threatening injuries such as a broken neck, abdominal trauma and so forth.

EMT