Anyone ever use an airbag?

Muahahaha

Just wondering if anyone here has ever been in a crash and thanked their lucky stars for the airbag afterwards? And whats it like, is it a massive face plant into the bag followed by a big snap backwards into your seat? Does it prevent you going too far forward to suffer injures from the tension of the seat belt?

And what happens to the panel on the steering wheel where the airbag pops out, where does that end up?

wotzgoingon

I was in one and the air bag nearly poisoned me. And it was not a cushion at all I could have done without it as it never came up to my face and deffo could have done without the poison fumes. It was a 90's jap car so not sure if new car are different.

CianRyan

Myself and a past poster were in a slippery skid one day, I sent my car up a bank and through a fence.
Air bag should have went off but post crash inspection showed the bag wasn't even in the car!
Good times.

wotzgoingon

tphase wrote: »

was in one bad smash but it was the seat belt pretensioner that saved me. Air bag went off but I barely made contact with it
The panel on the steering wheel ripped but remained attached to the wheel

As above the airbag done nothing for me either as it made no contact with me and I didn't even have my seat belt on. I just held onto the steering wheel.

Did you get any fumes from your air bag. That's what got me I nearly passed out with them. Regarding the panel the steering wheel just ripped open to allow the air bag to exit.

Victor

The airbag uses gunpowder or similar explosive to expand.

I was back seat passenger in a taxi when another car ran a red light. Blanked out for a second. When I cam to, the car was full of smoke ("Fire!) and I couldn't get out.

I was wearing my sat belt.

CianRyan

Air bags use corn flour as a dry lubricant to ensure they open fully, this is the "smoke" that lingers.

passatman86

I flipped into a field onto the roof of my car. Got the air bag into the face. Could smell and taste the powder for the rest of the day. Didn't leave much of a mark on me only a barely noticeable red burn/impact scorch on my nose "well i do have a big nose"

Gorgeousgeorge

Herself crashed a little clio years back. I was in the front and the airbag cut the snot off me. To be fair did prob save me as it was a bad smash

wotzgoingon

CianRyan wrote: »

Air bags use corn flour as a dry lubricant to ensure they open fully, this is the "smoke" that lingers.

They must have switched mine out for poison as a lubricant at the factory when they were installing it. :pac:

nailstar

Had an accident a few years ago where the air bag went off after a collision and it left severe bruising on my chest - it took weeks to clear, it was the seatbelt that saved my life

colm_mcm

Had one go off decades ago, melted the pile off one arm of the (Subaru) fleece I was wearing

mickdw

I notice alot of drivers position their seat terribly where the steering is kind of aimed towards their chest. I often wonder if the airbag will be a danger in that case.

StereoSound

I've heard stories of airbags deploying for no reason due to faults. That would be a fright and a half sitting in traffic on a quiet afternoon......

Speedline

I have one out in the shed. I keep meaning to put 12 volts to it for the craic.

Any bad crashes I had were pre airbag days. I would say if the Fiat Bambino had an airbag fitted, my nose would be straight today. :pac:

RandomViewer

StereoSound wrote: »

I've heard stories of airbags deploying for no reason due to faults. That would be a fright and a half sitting in traffic on a quiet afternoon......

If there's a fault it won't deploy, only case I've heard of was a guy came over a bump hard and the bag deployed when the car bottomed out, that was an early model so unlikely to happen now

mickdw

RandomViewer wrote: »

If there's a fault it won't deploy, only case I've heard of was a guy came over a bump hard and the bag deployed when the car bottomed out, that was an early model so unlikely to happen now

I know of a rented alfa 166 that deployed t hge airbag after the front bumper slammed into the ground after coming over a hump pretty fast -
I owned a 166 myself and they have a habit of slamming the sump into the ground on bumps. No airbag issues thankfully.

johndaman66

CianRyan wrote: »

Air bags use corn flour as a dry lubricant to ensure they open fully, this is the "smoke" that lingers.

wotzgoingon wrote: »

They must have switched mine out for poison as a lubricant at the factory when they were installing it. :pac:

I wonder would corn flour, like many other foods, smell poisonous after its years out of date?

RandomViewer

johndaman66 wrote: »

I wonder would corn flour, like many other foods, smell poisonous after its years out of date?

It's just the gunpowder, same as a shotgun blast, you get used to it

johndaman66

RandomViewer wrote: »

It's just the gunpowder, same as a shotgun blast, you get used to it

Being in a few tips?

starlady1

I was in a bad crash a few years ago.

The airbag deployed and ended up leaving a very sore burn mark on my hand.

It definitely didn't stop the seat belt doing damage- I ended up with a fractured sternum and severely torn muscles in my stomach.

The alternative would have been to go straight out through the windscreen-the airbag and seat belt saved my life. The burn on my hand lasted a few weeks and soft tissue damage caused by the seatbelt is looking like its permanent but it's a small price to pay for being able to walk out of the car alive.

Speedline

starlady1 wrote: »

I was in a bad crash a few years ago.

The airbag deployed and ended up leaving a very sore burn mark on my hand.

It definitely didn't stop the seat belt doing damage- I ended up with a fractured sternum and severely torn muscles in my stomach.

The alternative would have been to go straight out through the windscreen-the airbag and seat belt saved my life. The burn on my hand lasted a few weeks and soft tissue damage caused by the seatbelt is looking like its permanent but it's a small price to pay for being able to walk out of the car alive.

For all the people crying about the smell and the dust and the scuff on the face etc, the alternative would usually be much worse.

RandomViewer

johndaman66 wrote: »

Being in a few tips?

Too many when younger,worked in a garage in the 90s, used to tow in damaged cars

CianRyan

RandomViewer wrote: »

It's just the gunpowder, same as a shotgun blast, you get used to it

It's not gun powder, it's two different chemicals that when mixed, creat nitrogen that rapidly expands.
Gun powder would creat a fireball which, obviously, would not be cool.

punisher5112

Big head on where it went off, I was front seat passenger, it burnt all of my left arm....

Got out no issues, been in a good few others and no bags went off, Vectra went off the road on black ice, all windows gone but 2, roof on driver side crushed in and door, had to climb out passenger side.

Wibbs

mickdw wrote: »

I notice alot of drivers position their seat terribly where the steering is kind of aimed towards their chest. I often wonder if the airbag will be a danger in that case.

Apparently it can be. Safety systems were for a long time and still are to some degree built and measured around the size and weight of the "Average Man", so didn't take into account women(and smaller or larger men). If you're a 5 foot nothing woman, you're quite naturally going to be sitting closer to the steering wheel and airbags so much closer to the action when things go south. You're also more likely to submarine under seatbelts. Plus having less lean tissue, less dense bones injuries are more likely anyway. This is an American based article but makes the case.


Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) shows that males drive more miles than females, and are more likely to engage in risky behavior, such as speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol, and not wearing a seat belt. But a study from NHTSA shows that a female driver or front passenger who is wearing her seat belt is 17 percent more likely than a male to be killed when a crash takes place. And a 2019 study from the University of Virginia (UVA) shows that for a female occupant, the odds of being injured in a frontal crash are 73 percent greater than the odds for a male occupant. That’s controlling for occupant age, height, and body mass index, in addition to collision severity and vehicle model year.



That's a helluva difference. I seem to recall back in the early days of airbags US market cars often had larger ones because more US drivers didn't wear seatbelts, so that wouldn't help.

Another one I read was the risk when usually women sat too close to the airbag/wheel the force of it going off could actually cause horrible neck injuries as it hit the chin and forced it upward.

RandomViewer

CianRyan wrote: »

It's not gun powder, it's two different chemicals that when mixed, creat nitrogen that rapidly expands.
Gun powder would creat a fireball which, obviously, would not be cool.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1994-10-06-9410040545-story.html

CianRyan

RandomViewer wrote: »

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1994-10-06-9410040545-story.html

That's a dead link, or at least isn't available in Ireland.
Summary?

barneygumble99

I was in a crash on the stillorgan dual carriageway one night around 11:30. Car came from the opposite direction and miss-took a green straight ahead light and didn’t see the red filter light. He came from my right hand side across my path. Tore the front off my car, engine out on the ground job. I had a golf he had a corsa. Air bag went off, I don’t remember a single thing about it, just him coming toward me. If I was a split second sooner he was gone into my front drivers door. Car was full of smoke and I basically asked myself was I ok.

No injuries, tow truck came, cleaned up the place, we both got breathalysed , all good, cops dropped me to work 5 minutes away. Was working 12am to 8am shift, what else would I do at that hour only lie awake other driver was very apologetic, felt sorry for him, no penalties or trouble for him out of it except for an insurance hike I’d imagine. Did the lotto on my way home from work that day, didn’t win.

I was in a Ford Galaxy and went into the driver side of an Audi A4 at about 70kph-ish.

It was weird, cos I was so sure we weren't gonna make contact (I swerved to the right to avoid her, but she then kept moving forward and drove in front of my swerve). There was like a fraction of a second before the impact were everything seemed like it went in slow-motion and I was 100% confident we missed each other as my car stopped just in time.. "ah grand, that was close" before the sudden bang of the airbag going off and me ploughing into her.

Although I just closed my eyes (instinct) for about a half a second at the point of impact, when I opened them again I couldn't see a thing. The whole car was black with powder (more like a dust) from the bag. Took me about 10 seconds to figure out what was going on. Turned out the main air bag didn't even go off. What went off was an airbag under the steering wheel, for my legs.

(which I still find suspicious to be honest.. surely if the legs bag went off, you'd think the steering wheel bag would, too..).

I got out and checked on the woman in the car I hit, and her steering wheel airbag went off, along with two airbags beside her, one i think was in the headrest and one above the door (so she pretty much got a series of airbags that covered her drivers door (the side I hit her). Her car was powdery too, but nowhere near as bad as mine (presumably because of the time that passed since hitting her).

I know it's not gunpowder, as mentioned above, but there was a very unique gunpowder-esque smell in the car.

The airbag did a number on my left (clutch) leg and I had massive bruises for a while, and the seatbelt did a number on me, too. Although at the time of the accident I was flying around like it was no one's business. Helped yer one out of the car, chatted with Gardai and Paramedics and all was great in the world, til a paramedic pointed out my hands were all over the place (shakin' stevens). I was in an adrenaline rush of sorts, I'd say. Took me a few minutes then to calm down.


So that's my life story.

fryup

my mate Alan said it was strangely satisfying when it happened to him, though he is a bit odd

cajonlardo

I got hit head on a few years ago.

When the bags went off there was a cloud of chalk dust. In the heat of the moment I thought that was smoke and the car had caught fire
( it was a fairly spectacular crash)

RandomViewer

CianRyan wrote: »

That's a dead link, or at least isn't available in Ireland.
Summary?

Basically mid 90s Volvos gunpowder in side impact airbags, was quicker reaction than sodium azate