# Have you ever been air-bagged? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 11, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-air-bagged/701070 "2014-10-11T23:02:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DataX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DataX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataX)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-air-bagged/701070/41 "2014-10-16T05:35:37Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > I read somewhere that airbags can cause severe damage to one’s hands, and that one way to avoid this is to hold the steering wheel in the 9 o’clock and the 3 o’clock positions, rather than at 10 o’clock and 2. However, I don’t know enough about airbags to understand why this makes a difference. Do any of you “victims” have an idea why, based on your experience? I agree with Sarabellum - after the airbag comes out - it resembles a closed vagina with a very big deflated balloon hanging out of it. I mean resemble might be a strong word - as never once did I think that’s what it was. It come out of the horizontal slit - and I’m guessing that’s pretty close to where my injuries occurred. I think driving at 10 and 2 would only mean you then had injuries on your wrists, but you’d be further away. > [@Rick](#): > > I think the difference in how the bag hits you depends on a couple of things. > Year of the car. Early cars had more powerful bags, later cars the bags are less powerful and may also have multi stage deployments where if you are in a low speed accident, the bag is deployed at a lower force > > How close you sit to the wheel. The further away from the wheel you are, the less the bag will whack you. A tall person with long arms who sits 12+" inches away from the steering wheel will hit the bag with much less force that a short person that sits 5" away from the wheel. > Some newer cars have seat track sensors that depower the bag if the seat is in the first 4" of travel. I think this is very true - I am almost 6’ and always have my seat in the farthest position possible. This was some time ago - I believe the late 90s - and I think the airbag would have hurt much more if I had been closer. I am pretty sure for my crash - I did not need the airbag - I felt that it was the seatbelt that saved me. I had been in other accidents - one recently that seemed almost as hard of a crash - and the bag didn’t deploy. I felt no pain or issues at all. So I’m guessing my airbag accident was probably close to the threshold of G force or what ever is measured to cause it to deploy. So I’m not sure if the forward momentum the body makes has something to do with how much it hurts. In both cases I felt totally restrained by the seatbelt. So to sum up - I’m pretty sure if I had the seat forward as far as it would go - it would have hurt my face/chest (and I think it did hit my chest to the other person who assumed that I might have meant ONLY the face) if memory serves it covered a pretty big area - I just didn’t feel/remember the chest thing at all - kinda imagine falling on an air mattress if it hits your chest and face - you really are only going to remember the face part - as unless you are really fragile - it really isn’t going to “hurt” your chest. Or even if it does - the pain is going to be worse in your face so that is what you’ll remember most. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2014, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-air-bagged/701070/42 "2014-10-16T06:00:47Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > I read somewhere that airbags can cause severe damage to one’s hands, and that one way to avoid this is to hold the steering wheel in the 9 o’clock and the 3 o’clock positions, rather than at 10 o’clock and 2. However, I don’t know enough about airbags to understand why this makes a difference. Do any of you “victims” have an idea why, based on your experience? The new airbags are probably a lot safer and better than old airbags. Just don’t buy any car more than 5 years old. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-air-bagged/701070/43 "2014-10-25T00:07:03Z")
Just saw [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isc-RHHfbBs#t=120) on YouTube. It gives a good sense of the smoke that comes after an airbag deployment. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-air-bagged/701070/44 "2014-10-25T01:51:29Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Just saw [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isc-RHHfbBs#t=120) on YouTube. It gives a good sense of the smoke that comes after an airbag deployment. at least some of the smoke is actually powdered talc, which acts as a “lubricant” to make sure the air bag deploys correctly. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-air-bagged/701070/45 "2014-10-25T16:14:21Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > I wonder if you would be better off if you relaxed your body right before impact. And take your hands off of the wheel. Or would you risk jamming your fingers on the dashboard? I don’t remember the context, but I remember a program where this guy drives into things for a job. Always, always, he put his hands in his lap just before the collision. My dad always said not to drive with your thumbs inside of the steering wheel, as if you hit a kerb or another car the force of the wheel turning could break your thumbs. Not sure if this is still relevant to modern cars? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-been-air-bagged/701070.md?page=2)