Airbags not Deploying

[Soltan]

Hi,
Hope this posted correctly, my first thread.

A friend of mine works for one of those Accident Claims type companies and he told me about a fatal accident he got called out to involving a 2001 C180 Auto. The car was involved in a multiple vehicle impact (2 hits from the front, the first being into the drivers side front wing, 1 from the rear) doing a speed of around 35-40MPH.

The question was why did the airbags not deploy in the car? I don't know if they would have helped to avoid any of the fatalities but he did say they would have helped to reduce some of the injuries to the survivors.

I asked about modifications to the car and if the airbags had been turned off. He advised that as far as he can tell the car had not been involved in any previous accident (a HPI check is being carried out) and the air bag indicator showed that it was operational. The car has had a number of previous owners but there are no obvious signs of any modifications.

Any ideas?

 

[BTB 500]

Airbags only deploy in certain very specific situations. For example a rear impact would never deploy a front airbag. Basically the airbag won't fire unless you're going to be thrown (very) violently forwards.

 

[KillerHERTZ]

As a guess, I would say that the position of impact, and the position of the sensors would not have matched/triggered, so as far as the cars concerned the airbags werent needed.

Think of the millions of possibilties envolved in a crash, all of these cannot be recreated in a lab under test conditions, unfortualty this looks like it was one of those

 

[BTB 500]

Think of the millions of possibilties envolved in a crash, all of these cannot be recreated in a lab under test conditions, unfortualty this looks like it was one of those

Or simply the airbags wouldn't have made any difference (roof crushed in, for example).

It's not actually 100% clear from the original post that any of the occupants of the C180 died ("a fatal accident involving a C180" could mean it ran over a pedestrian).

 

[Soltan]

Or simply the airbags wouldn't have made any difference (roof crushed in, for example).

It's not actually 100% clear from the original post that any of the occupants of the C180 died ("a fatal accident involving a C180" could mean it ran over a pedestrian).

One of the passengers of the C180 died. The car was hit in the front drivers side wing by a Peugeot (not sure of model, but relatively small). It's airbags deployed but I believe the occupant also died.
The car did not roll.

 

[Rory]

The car was involved in a multiple vehicle impact (2 hits from the front, the first being into the drivers side front wing, 1 from the rear) doing a speed of around 35-40MPH.

Appreciate that you won't know too many details, but 35-40MPH shouldn't be fatal in a Merc, unless it was hit by big truck. Where the people wearing seat-belts?

For the airbags to deploy the hit has to be in very specific directions - front, centre side etc. I guess they're not perfect though and probably sometimes go off un-necessarily and other times don't fire when they should. There could of course also be a fault in the system.

 

[Soltan]

All I know about the crash is that the car was hit on the drivers side front wing. It spun into the other side of the road and was hit by another car (I assumed on-coming traffic but was not explicitly stated) and then hit in the rear by another car which couldn't stop in time.

 

[Brian WH]

It also would depend on the speed of impact, not the car speed before the accident. ie The driver could have braked and the impact speed could have been very low.

Moved thread.

 

[Rory]

One of the passengers of the C180 died. The car was hit in the front drivers side wing by a Peugeot (not sure of model, but relatively small). It's airbags deployed but I believe the occupant also died.
The car did not roll.

Well, if the Merc was spun violently then I could imagine fatal neck injury.

I'm now a bit surprised that the person in the Peugeot died - could the speed be understated?

 

[BTB 500]

Which passenger died? Sounds like it might have been T-boned in which case only a side/curtain airbag would have helped.

 

[Soltan]

Well, if the Merc was spun violently then I could imagine fatal neck injury.

I'm now a bit surprised that the person in the Peugeot died - could the speed be understated?

Don't know how fast he was going when he shot out of the side road into the Merc (was a give way, but he didn't) .......
As for the speed, I can only pass on what I was told, sorry.

 

[BTB 500]

Also you can get a broken neck from a rear impact if the headrest isn't properly adjusted (or is missing). Airbag wouldn't help there.

 

[wemorgan]

It's difficult to speculate why the airbags did not fire. A lateral impact to the front wing should have at least triggered the curtain airbags (if fitted), especially if the velocity was 35-40mph. Whether if fired the airbags would have lessened the injuries is harder still to guess. The position of the occupants, their percentile weight and height also significantly determines their injury levels. It was noted during the EuroNCAP side impact pole test for this vehicle that the curtain airbag did not fully deploy and that there were concerns in other impact situations it would not work as required. Maybe this was just one of those sad situations.

 

[DansSlk]

The wings are not a good spot for airbags, side on or front on are well instrumented but that particular area can be hit from different angles and only a few will trigger the bag's.

As the others have said its all down to the sensor locations.

Just in response to Rory's comment's on 35-40 not being fatal, you'd think that wouldn't you but I've seen sub-30 impacts that have killed occupants without the car sustaining considerable damage, just way too many variable's to be able to say anything like that I'm afraid it just doesn't work that way.

 

[greyboy]

A friend of mine works in a car scrapyard in Gosport, Hampshire. He told me they quite often get cars in of various makes, which have been hit from front, back and sides with NO airbags deployed.

 

[A210AMG]

Hello


Looking at pictures of some cars classed as none recorded etc and no air bags set off you do wonder sometimes what sort of accident sets them off..

I hope we all never need to use them but I would like to think if needed they would do what they are designed for.

I have heared that they can go out of date ? (is this the air that sets them off?)

 

[Soltan]

Thank you all for your responses. I'll be speaking to my friend next week and will show him the posts, hopefully it will help him understand the situation a little better.
The driver of the Merc was talking about suing Mercedes, not sure how much of a case he will have.

 

[timskemp]

I got hit on the drivers side, just ahead of the door by a truck doing approx 30-40mph in one of my volvos, because the force was rotational and not straight I was told the airbags did not deploy. Door opened (but didn't shut again) and I walked away shaken but uninjured (truck shot across road smashing a concrete bollard and brick wall).

Airbag systems are designed very well, when a tree jumped in front of my 75 both myself and my passenger walked away again uninjured, probably thanks to seatbelts, tensioners and airbags.

 

[Soltan]

Hello

I hope we all never need to use them but I would like to think if needed they would do what they are designed for.

I have to say that niggling little thought has been in my mind too. Especially since I sometimes have my family in the car. I'd like to think that even in a minor impact the curtain airbags would deploy to prevent my kids from being showered with glass at least.

 

[Rory]

Just in response to Rory's comment's on 35-40 not being fatal, you'd think that wouldn't you but I've seen sub-30 impacts that have killed occupants without the car sustaining considerable damage, just way too many variable's to be able to say anything like that I'm afraid it just doesn't work that way.

That's not an expected outcome though - a modern car is supposed to absorb the energy of the impact so that in even low speed impacts the car can look very damaged. If a car occupant wearing a seatbelt dies in 30MPH impact then I would suggest that that's extremely unusual - perhaps the person was already fragile.