My airbag did not come out when I was in a car accident. I was wearing my seat belt. Is that a defect?

Question

I hit the other vehicle and spinned them around. I did not cause the accident. The front of my car was damaged. The impact was bad enough to cause injuries.

Answer 1

Well, if there is an option to turn off your airbag in your car, it's probably off. Try to turn it on.

Answer 2

IT MIGHT BE...........................

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 3

I'd be pretty interested in talking to an attorney about it, if I were you.

Answer 4

for your car to cause another to be spun and damage yours then your air bag should have deployed so i would say yes to your question .

hope no one was badly injured

Answer 5

It could be a defect but then again it could mean that the impact was not strong enough.

Modern design and construction methods used in today’s vehicles include progressive crumple zones in the body and frame structure to reduce the rate of deceleration in severe frontal impacts. For this reason, damage sustained by a vehicle in a head on collision may appear quite extensive and the airbags may not have deployed because the crumple zones have absorbed a significant amount of the energy of the impact. In these cases, the airbag sensors have detected that the rate of vehicle deceleration has not been sufficient to require triggering of the airbags.

Typically, the driver and or passenger airbags deploy in head-on collisions where the force of the impact is equal to or greater than striking an immovable and non deformable barrier (such as steel or concrete) at a speed of around 18-25 km/h or higher. In offset collisions or in a head-on collision with another vehicle or other deformable and/or movable object, the speed would generally need to be significantly higher than 25 km/h for the airbags to deploy. Airbags designed for frontal impacts usually do not deploy in rear end collisions, side impacts, rollover accidents or in most under ride accidents.

Since you were wearing your seatbelt and I assume you didn't get any serious physical injury, the airbag shouldn't have been deployed.

Airbags deploy at a VERY fast rate (almost 200 mph) SRS airbags are designed to reduce peak loads on the head and chest in severe crashes (those where death or long term brain injury are possible).

But if you did, call your car dealership and talk to them about it, if you are sure that the airbag should have deployed then you can contact an attorney which will cost you time and money. There's a a lot of people who have had problems with their airbags that have complained.

I think you should be thankful you escaped with your life.

Answer 6

Well, where did you get hit?  If you got hit from the rear and spun around, chances are that even if the front of your car was damaged, it may not have been enough force to cause the airbags to set off.  If you gave more information, it would be easier to determine, but don't go for a lawsuit too fast: our crazy lawsuit-happy culture is not good for you or the company.  If you got hit head on quite hard, then the airbags should have deployed,

Answer 7

yes it is a defect. You shold get a good lawyer in order to SUE and get your $$$..  even when your life is priceless, fresh cash is never bad news.

Answer 8

yeah, it should have gone off. Had it go off with less. You should get a lawyer.

Answer 9

Airbags blow, I say take it like a man, my vehicles all predate 1994.  Lawsuits only equal higher prices and satisfying crybabies who can't deal.  Unless you drive a vo, that is Volvo or Volkswagen your really not concerned about a proper driving experience.

Answer 10

Yes - sounds like your airbag should have deployed.

Answer 11

no,wearing your seat belt is not a defect....sorry your airbag didn't come out.....did your car airbag come out?.....not surprised you didn't cause the accident,I've heard that as soon as we find intelligent life on another planet our next goal is to find someone who actually caused an accident.....a little advice when you go to court,refrain from making statements like...i hit the other vehicle and spinned them around.

Answer 12

Not necessarily.  Airbags are not like being caressed by angels.  They are like being hit in the face by Mike Tyson. They can injure you all by themselves.   So they shouldn't deploy except to protect you from an even worse injury.  You weren't injured, so they worked right.

Answer 13

Yes, this is a defect. Any time the front of a car with an airbag is hit, the airbag is suppose to deploy.

Answer 14

Questions like this are asked and answered all the time here.  There are specific criteria that need to be met to activate a deployment.  Check out this website for the EXACT answers to your questions including the blog specific to your concern. This site tells you exactly what needs to happen for the airbags to deploy and what needs to be replaced (seat belts & all) on over 3500 cars after they do.  

http://www.airbagsolutions.com

http://blog.airbagsolutions.com

http://www.airbagsolutions.com/resources...

http://blog.airbagsolutions.com/archive/...

Answer 15

Not necessarily.But you ought to be glad they didn't.I never want to experience that again.I'd rather hit the windshield.

Answer 16

Defective it is.

Answer 17

Same thing happened when my husband had a roll-over accident.  The car was a Jeep SUV.

Answer 18

yes

Answer 19

Charm is right. It's not defective, you were not hit hard enough. I was t-boned at 50MPH and my side airbag didn't go off. It is not a malfunction.

Answer 20

call the company and tell them, the car may have not thought the impact was damaging enough, but it could be a defect

Answer 21

I would definitely say it was a defect.   Airbags are supposed to deploy any time there is a impact if there is a sensor that picks up   in this case,  the front of your car.    And they are supposed to deploy and a relative low speed.  .

Answer 22

Sure was. Your Angel was with you when this happened. You could have been hurt really bad. Hope you were not.Hope none of them were real bad.

Answer 23

Sometime car repair guys will steal air bag while the car is in their possession.  The owner would not know (or the next owner) until years later.  So if you had your car repaired some time back, you can be actually missing air bags.

Good Luck.

Answer 24

I smell lawsuit... for the car dealer that is

Answer 25

Yes, your airbag should have deployed.

Answer 26

Depends what the performance criteria of the airbag are.  At what speed is it supposed to deploy?

There is simply not enough information here to judge.

Answer 27

Maybe God just dosn't like you.

Answer 28

if you were not personnaly injured you can forget collecting in on the accident but if you contact the company they might trade your car

Answer 29

well it prabably is but there is the idea that the car got hit in a certain spot where the airbag couldnt deploy cause of it being so far away from the airbag holder