When airbags first came out they were more powerful as they were set up for no seatbelt usage. Since then the regulations have changed and the bags are less powerful.
Also if you disable the bag you could quite likely shatter your glasses when your face hits the steering wheel. Seatbelts stretch during an accident you see…
An EMT friend of mine has lots of airbag stories from the first responder’s view. The two most graphic I remember involve objects being held in the driver’s hand at the time the airbag deployed. They were a lit cigarette to the eye and a pencil jammed through the cheek bone.
Yeah, they inflate pretty damn fast, within 10-20 milliseconds. They don’t deflate quite that fast, but fast enough that by the time you’ve come to rest after the initial impact, they’re already slack. Witness this airbag deployment (at t=12s); it’s deployed within a single video frame, and it’s a limp rag by the time the car comes to a stop.
I kept telling them not to make those things out of fish…
No idea what that idiot was trying to acheive. He was driving far too fast for road conditions, but in a road-like way. Crash was basically inevitable.
Looks like the kid forgot to turn the steering wheel. That turn wasn’t very tight and he wasn’t going that fast.
I had one go off after slamming into a parked car at about 60mph and didn’t even notice it, whereas my BIL had a similar accident and ended up with the worst black eye I’ve ever seen! More like a “black left side of his face”.
She was fine after a quick trip to a plastic sturgeon…
I’ll go now.
I was in an accident where the side airbag deployed, but the front did not. It undoubtedly saved me from a very nasty crack on the side of my head. My overall impression of the airbag was HOLY CRAP WHAT HAPPENED WHAT IS THIS THING IN MY FACE. Then I heard my 15-month-old son shrieking in the back seat and forgot about anything else. (He was fine. Just scratches and panic.)
Had no grip until it was too late cause of the crest. Your “forgot” is instructive, it’s what I was getting at with road-type driving - obviously he could easily have made the turn had he known that over the ridge there was a corner… but you shouldn’t be driving on the road as if you “know” what is around anything (except for planning purposes). If he drove that so as to make the corner without being able to stop and there was someone lying in the middle of the road he’d have killed htem.
I was hit in the passenger side when making a left turn, it caught a little of the right front fender and slid lightly down the side. Both airbags went off, there was a 4 lb box on right front seat. I was about 10 inches from the bag. Whole collision was greatly magnified by bags going off, clouds of smoke inside and big jolt, the seat belt held me firmly in place so I don’t think I went very far forward. The airbag hit me in the chest pretty hard and vented gas down my left wrist as it was on the steering wheel at 10 o’clock. Very much like being punched very hard with a large soft surface, my chest hurt for a week. My fleece had a burn thru hole and was melted over about 10 square and I got a very very minor burn. I’ve since moved my seat back a few inches trying to stay over 12 inches from bag. Really not sure what to do about gas venting on wrist. Anyway I never have to do that again. Car damaged but saved. My advice is to move your small friends and relatives back from the wheel, this punch would be very severe if close and I am sure women will really not like it.
burns
(This is my post from a different thread.)
And just for the record… I’ve been in two seperate accidents and had the airbag deploy. (Both times, in a 2003 Chevy Silverado 1/2 ton PU)
The first time was a high speed impact, a drunk driver swerved across three lanes into my lane, I didn’t have any time to react (brace for impact/hit brakes/swerve). Impact speed was approx. 60 mph. I drive setting as far back as is comfortable from the steering wheel, with the wheel tilted almost all the way down. The airbag deployment was barely noticeable. (Meaning, I didn’t ‘feel’ it when it hit me in the chest.)
The second time was a ‘low speed’ impact, approx. 15 mph. I was pulling a trailer and there had just been a rain shower, making the streets slick. Due to inattention on my part, I didn’t notice the light change. I applied my brakes, but due to the extra weight of the trailer, I slid into the intersection and hit a PU truck that was going thru the intersection. The frame horn that the impact sensor is mounted in (in that particular model of PU, and probably most other PU trucks) impacted the rear wheel of the truck that I hit.
When the airbag deployed, it struck me in the chest hard enough to take my breath away. It felt like someone had slapped me in the chest, open handed, as hard as they could.
I can only imagine that if it had hit me in the face, I would have been sporting a bloody nose and two black eyes.
The moral of the story… Set well back from the steering wheel (as far as is comfortable) and tilt it down (if you have that option) as much as possible.
ETA… The smell is, well… nasty is the only word that comes to mind. 
On the freeway one doing about 60 when the traffic stops!!! I managed to stop about 2 inches from the car in front of me. I looked into my rear view mirror to check the car behind me it was still doing 60. I braced my self and BANG CRASH. After the ringing I started to check myself and my pick up. That is when I noticed the “smoke” in the cab. I thought great now it is going to burn. Then I noticed the air bags had deployed and the smoke was dust. Never felt it bags go off, and only had a rash on the inside osf both arms.
mrAru had his hands blown off the wheel, just in time for the left arm to get whacked against the window just as it broke during the roll over, ripping his arm from elbow to wrist and embedding a fair amount of road debris along the arm as well. And he got his glasses knocked off, and a pair of black eyes. His seatbelt left him with bruises across his chest and lower abdomen.
When an airbag deploys, what happens to the cover panel? (In particular, the one in the middle of the steering wheel.)
How is the cover panel mounted? Is it hinged on one side, so that it swivels open? Or does the whole cover get blown off? Does the cover hit you in the face? Does it, if you are sitting too close to the wheel? If not, what prevents that, and where does the cover go?
The cover splits in the middle and is hinged at the top and bottom. It does not come off.
On many (especially older) cars you can see an obvious seam across the bag. This is where the bag splits open.
As someone who’s been in that situation last week- (Car went off into the median at 70 mph, flipped on its side and traveled a distance across the grass). Frankly, I don’t remember it deploying, and have no bruises to show for it. Didn’t realize that it had gone off until the following day, when viewing the car in the towing lot.
This is actually quite common. I have seen complaints “the air bag didn’t inflate, it just fell out of the steering wheel.”
We showed the lady her makeup and lipstick prints on the bag. 
Shock does funny things to people!
Rick, what is the best body, arm and head position for a driver to assume immediately before impact?