When a person gets into a car crash in an airbag-equipped automobile and they are wearing a baseball cap with the bill facing forward, what happens?
I heard from someone that if you wear a baseball cap, the bill might detach from the fabric crown and impale you. Can the bill tear through the airbag fabric?
Real life cases would be appreciated.
Impale you? Sure, if the bill is made of sheet metal.
I’d think the tendency would be for the bill to smash down against your face or pop up over your head. Go fall face first onto your mattress and get back to us.
Damn it, we need a an applause smiley!
Slight tangent…how often do airbags come that close to people’s faces? I’d guess you would have to be completely unprepared for the accident, or sitting too close to the wheel.
The one time an airbag opened in front of me, I was wearing a cap, but the airbag didn’t hit anything other than the insides of my arms (my hands were on the wheel). I was standing on the brake and pressed back into the seat, so I didn’t move forward at all.
I guess I have the benefit of having long legs and I don’t have to sit very close to the wheel.
Your experience if correct is not typical. Even sitting far away from the wheel, your body moves forward as the seat belt stretches until your body contacts the bag.
The deal is the inflation/deflation is so quick that coupled with the sound of the ignition, you flinch, your eyes close and by the time they are open, you are again upright.
I once had a lady customer that alleged a product defect in her car and insisted that her airbag did not inflate, but rather just fell out of the steering wheel uninflated (not possible). I straightened out the bag and showed her her lipstick, and makeup that was left on the bag where she hit it. It looked kind of like this :eek:*
Getting back to the OP, most likely the cap would be blown off of your head.
Here is one to think about, what happens if a guy is smoking a pipe and is thrown into the airbag? I asked a safety engineer this one once. He laughed and never gave me an answer.
*Only with the eyes closed!
Good for you for checking the dope, or snopes, but really,
should be your first clue.
Chipped teeth possibly, or maybe not even that. The pipe would be far more likely to be knocked out of the side of your mouth than to be knocked back your throat. I’m sure it’s not nearly as dangerous as chewing gum while in a car accident.
Some especially forward-thinking folk consider that possibility and always plan ahead.
The sound that would make falls into the group collectively known as Borkum Riffs.
I rolled a car over sideways recently, and the side curtain airbag inflated. I think it knocked my glasses off my face, but happily it did not impale them into my temple.
