I work at various auto auctions nowaday in my semi-retirement.
See lots of TLC’s (total loss collision) --------car mostly destroyed------front end back a couple feet crumpled into nothingness, and air bags deployed.
Looking at the damage to the front, I always look and expect to see blood everywhere inside the car. Never saw any blood at all in these cases that usually end up at auto auctions.
Air bags may be somewhat painful, but they sure seem to prevent serious injury or death-------at least from what I have seen.
I know raising zombie threads from the grave is generally looked down on around here but I wanted to let everyone know that I got into a wreck over this past Thanksgiving and the airbag deployed so that query was definitively answered! The wreck was between 50-60 miles per hour and actually the airbag did not hurt at all as it happened too fast for me to really register what happened.
Man it is really embarassing but I fell asleep at the wheel (with the cruise control on) and the car turned and I ran right into the guardrail. I kept falling asleep and then snapping out of it, when I should have pulled over after the first time.
I had to get rid of my '98 Mustang after I wrecked it because of the airbag smell. After the insurance company and dealership were done with the car, it was like new, but there was still that airbag smell inside the car. I’d get pretty freaked out sometimes, especially if I kicked on the A/C after it hadn’t been on in a few days. That’s when the smell would be really strong. I traded it in a few months after I got it back.
If not for that, I’d probably still have that car. Out of the half-dozen Mustangs I’ve owned, it was by far the best.
What I got in the wreck, I was going about 45 MPH and a car pulled out of a blind corner in front of me about 100 ft ahead. That gave me about 1 second to stand on the brake if my reaction time was 1/2 second. Being tall and skinny, I drive with the seat all the way back and standing on the brake, I was pressed into the seatback pretty hard. Upon impact, I saw the airbags open. It was almost like a frame-by-frame slow motion thing…one frame, everything was normal, the next frame, the air bags were open, and the next frame, everything came to a rest (except for the car I hit which was still spinning) and the air bags were already partially deflated and my hood was slightly folded up in front of the windshield.
I guess about 3 seconds passed before I felt like I had to vacate the car because of all of the dust/smoke from the airbags. I actually bent the sheet-metal on the driver’s side door trying to make my escape since the fender had pushed back about an inch and was jamming the hinge-end of the door.
I rear-ended another car on Saturday morning going about 40 to 45 mph. I was wearing my seat-belt. My airbag deployed instantly. My injury was to my chest only. I was taken by ambulance to an ER where it was determined that my heart and lungs were okay, but that I had a severe bruise on my chest. I am a 68-year-old female. This bruise is very painful, requiring a narcotic pain medication. It is now Tuesday, 3 days later, and I’m still very, very uncomfortable.
As others have written, you will have no time to try to protect yourself from the airbag. Its action is instantaneous!
Previously about 30 years ago I was in a more serious car accident wearing a seat-belt only. The car had no airbag. I was seriously injured with many broken ribs which caused both lungs to collapse.
My present chest discomfort is preferable to that previous scenario.
If this had ever happened every TV station in the country would follow the old journalistic maxim “If it bleeds, it leads,”
This story would be on every station and network along with “Special Investigative reports” and “I Team investigations”. You would hear about it at 4, 6, and 11.
Since you haven’t, I feel fairly confidant it has never happened.
I’ve been happy AND scared to have my first airbag equipped vehicle. Scared because it’s one of the earliest airbag systems in the USA, I believe. It’s a 1991 Buick Park Avenue. It’s not even referred to as SRS. Instead it is a SIR, or Supplemental Inflatable Restraint. I’ve read about how hard-hitting the old systems can be. That scares me. I will hopefully be replacing the car next year (fingers crossed!) so hopefully I will never have to find out.
I did not know thatthe air bags deployed never saw them. After the accident as I was gathering my thoughts I noticed them hanging down and I had a rug burn onmy leftarm.
When I rolled over, the side curtain airbag knocked my glasses into the back seat. I had a moment of disorientation once the car came to rest: “Oh my God, I’m blind!”
