this morning i was on my way to school and i slammed the ___ of another car... i was doing about 45mph and BAMMM..... 3 huge cracks all the way through my bumper, grill split in half, and demolished my core support and bent my radiator.... i went into the windshield hit the steering wheel with my chest and my knees hit the dash..... but NO AIRBAG DEPLOYMENT..... isn't that messed up?..... can i sue for this??????????????????


GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrRRRRrrrr

 

I hope you're OK, first of all. Also, I hope your car is repairable without much structural reconstruction.

Back to your initial title, this is NOT what I wanted to hear! I recently totalled my Ford Focus, by nose-diving off an 8-ft drop, landing vertically. My Focus' airbag did not deploy, ruining my faith the the Focus, if not the already tainted reputation of Ford altogether. The only rationale I can give to my situation is that the bumper may have sustained enough damage when it hit the small guardrail, rendering the sensors useless.

I assume you struck the other car head on? Did your bumper slide under the other car? From what I've read, there are usually two airbag sensors in the bumper (one on each side), and both need to simultaneously "close" to properly activate. If one closes before another, the systems deems it a side impact and does not deploy.

I thought about pursuing legal action with Ford, or even going after the mom who forced me off the road. In the long run, my sanity, brain-drain, and possible legal costs weren't worth it. (My {perhaps naive} contribution to the karmic universe. ) The outcome is that you're alive, and will hopefully make a speedy recovery!

- Al

 

Side impacts still trigger the airbags. I should know.

 

ummm. not to nag, but i would think that you should be more worried that your seat belt didn't engage. your airbag is not meant to be used as the main restraint system. hence the SRS written on every airbag system. plus, how fast was the guy in front of you going. was he on the brakes. these things play a factor in whether or not those airbags deploy. I would call toyota and ask if it's cause for concern, but my bet is that you just didn't have the right conditions to warrant them to deploy.

 

WEAR YOUR FREAKING SEATBELT OR LEARN TO FLY!!!

If your seatbelt malfunctioned then contact them about that, other wise I have to assume you just didn't care enough about your own life to fasten it. Safety belts are to be engaged before the car even starts moving.

Airbags don't always deploy, and in some cases you could be glad that they didn't because it's another thousand dollars to replace.
Mine didn't go off in my Honda Element with a 30-40 MPH front end impact to the rear of someone's car, causing nearly $4000 to my vehicle alone and $1300 to hers.
We were all fine and no one flew at all.

 

Yeah sounds like someone wasn't wearing there seatbelt. If you did wear your seatbelt you wouldn't hit the steering wheel. Airbags still wouldn't deploy since it is assumed you have your seat belt on which is required by LAW. Now let's say it did go off without you wearing a seatbelt...well that's even worse. The force of the air bag hurtling straight at your body will pummel you backwards towards the back of the seat. Flip you over and break your neck before your head reaches the rear footwells.

 

Actually, the car is designed to NOT deploy the airbag if you are NOT wearing your seat belt. . . I don't know if you were granny driving, but it takes quite an impact to hit the steering wheel.

 

Air Bags are only part of the system. Should have had seatbelts on. Glad your not hurt. A good education does not come cheap.

 

The only messed up part would be if you were in fact not wearing your seat belt. Which, unless you're really freakishly tall, you shouldn't have hit the windshield like you said.

And if you try to sue for that, and it is found out that you weren't wearing your seat belt, you'd probably be laughed out of court.

 

it does not sound like the airbags should have deployed from the description of the damage.

it all sounds like cosmetic surface damage.
by this i mean the frame is still straight. since the frame is straight (and thats were the SRS sensors are) there was never enough force to cause the bags to deploy.

learn how the system is designed before you assume something was supposed to happen. (there are plenty of resources online)