A friend of mine recently got into a pretty bad wreck in his Buick and the airbags did not deploy. He and his girlfriend got a lawyer and the dealership which sold them the car said that the airbags will not deploy unless the brakes are applied at a certain pressure. Has anyone ever heard of this?

Here's the pictures of the wreck, looks bad enough for the airbags to deploy.







Figured I'd explain the accident since I had no clue how it happened by the pics. I'm not entirely sure, but I know the car carrier hit the buick and pushed it over the wall.

 

HTF&WTF now thats just messed up they should also sue GM for that kind of set up for not deploying with out the brakes

that just aint right

 

He's going after the dealer for selling a defective car, and since it's a safety issue, it's basically a 100% win. In all the crash tests I've seen, I have never seen the cars hitting their brakes just before impact.

If brakes are needed for airbag deployment, then what do people do when driving down the road and someone runs a red light? No human can react fast enough to even more his/her foot to the brake pedal. If this was the case, the safe way to drive would be to 2-foot.

 

Looks like a side impact. Did the Buick have side impact bags?

 

Damn... those definitely should've gone off.

Not even just the side curtains, but there's definite crushing in the hood too... the front's shoulda gone off too.

 

The car was hit from the front/driver side. Right near the headlight. The side damage was just from the car being dragged inbetween the carrier and the wall.

 

They would still consider that a side impact not a head on that would set off the front air bag.

 

Wow that does look pretty bad Did your friends get any serious injuries???


Airbag deployment is not based on an impact alone, there's actually a few factors involved-- Although I have never heard that not applying the brakes would cause the airbags to NOT deploy--
But, the airbag sensors will not deploy upon any impact alone, but instead, will deploy based on rate of deceleration that is measured. If there are minor injuries and no cabin downsizing, then that's consistent with non-deployment.

That Buick does look very damaged, but damage is not a good indicator of airbag deployment, as vehicles are designed to absorb more impact now, instead of the occupants, and therefore they crush more easily now than before-- Airbags are usually meant to deploy with a 15mph change in speed (that doesn't mean when your car is going 15mph, it means when change in speed of the vehicle during the crash is 15mph)-- This should be in the owner's manual- but offset, underride, pole and oblique impacts may require higher change in speed and not all vehicles have that 15mph change in speed guideline for airbags to deploy- it will depend on structure and interior of the vehicle.

I'm not sure with Buick, but I can say with Toyota/Lexus/Scion, there are sensors on both the left/right side on the front of the cars, behind the bumpers that, when impacted hard enough, will send the signal to deploy the airbags-- however there's beams in front of those sensor, a beam that is fairly soft and able to break relatively easy to absorb energy, then another beam that is harder-- so if the impact is hard enough to break the first beam and the second, harder one, then the airbag sensor will be impacted and go off-- usually oblique hits do not set this off, as hits that are at an angle will not impact it hard enough-- Also, airbag deployment in side or oblique hits would cause more damage because then the driver would get hit on the side and in the face from the airbag-- front airbags are meant to go off on frontal impact, to prevent injury such as hitting the steering wheel or lower dash (if you have knee airbags)--

sorry for the essay here - but I hope it helps a bit!

 

Very good explanation.

I keep looking at the pictures... what a scary accident. I really hope everyone is alright. If I was him, I would be asking for a clean pair of shorts for Christmas!

 

Thanks for the input, I'll tell him about this. I just find it funny about the whole brakes thing, it sounded like the dealership was just scared that the airbags didn't deploy after seeing the pictures, and just tried to make something up.

 

^^ No problem-- Yeah I think the dealer may have just made that up- I doubt Buick is the only car maker in which the pressure that brakes are applied causes the airbag to deploy......

 

but sueing the dealership? they didn't make the car, GM did. unless he bought it certified used or something from the dealership.

that is like sueing the grocery store because they sold you a sealed bottle of aspirin that was tainted with something. the grocery store had nothing to do it, the manufacturer of the aspirin is responsible.

 

ofcourse the dealership made that up that $h!t about hitting the brakes. think about it, how many times have you seen insurance institute crash tests? if you hadn't noticed they are filled with inanimate dummies that obviously never hit the brake pedal.

 

Your friend has the dumbest lawyer on the planet if they go after the dealership and not GM. There are no tests to determine whether or not the airbags will go off, and there is a lot of stuff in the news lately about a percentage of airbags that fail to deploy. It is known in the industry, has been known, and there are few things being done about it.

 

Your friend definitely shouldn't sue the dealership, they should go after GM, however, they should keep in mind that damage is not a good indicator of whether the airbags should have deployed-- I see from looking at the picture again that the grill is still fairly intact and it looks like it was an oblique impact- which would not cause airbags to deploy-- (see above post for explaination on that)

 

every word that the dealer fed your friend needs to be documented in this case. They are trying to screw your friend, but i agree with everyone else, this is a manufacturer issue and not a dealership issue. Idiots at the stealership will say anything to save their own skin.

if all goes well your friend should be driving a lexus/mercedes/"insert expensive car here" after the case is made, and it shouldnt even be a fight. I would like to know more details but it looks like the bags should have definately deployed.

"the break needs to be applied for the airbags to go off"

i would have punched that guy in the mouth. That is absolutely ridiculous, maybe you could hear that from someone who doesnt know jack about cars, but a "certified" tech or salesman should lose their job for lying to their customers with something as big of a safety issue as this.