Rolled car, non-deployment of airbags

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
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Thu 8 Jan 2004 19:17
Rolled car, non-deployment of airbags - andymc {P}
Some of you may have seen my thread in Discussion about a friend's car accident a couple of days ago. One thing that has occurred to me is that although the car effectively "bounced" from the left to the right side of the road, clipping another car with his rear OS wing and rolling over in the process, not one airbag deployed even though the car has front, side and curtain airbags. The lack of curtain airbag deployment in particular meant that my friend sustained both laceration and internal injuries to his hand, arm and shoulder - he was not protected from the broken glass of the side window or from the road surface. I appreciate that this is not the place to receive legal advice regarding any potential action against the manufacturer, but from a "technical" point of view, shouldn't the curtain airbag have deployed due to the car rolling over?
andymc
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Thu 8 Jan 2004 20:10
Rolled car, non-deployment of airbags - Sooty Tailpipes
Side airbags are usually deployed by detection of sudden air pressure changes in the front doors, which fall within the parameters of the data taken from test side impacts. If your crash did not meet these requirements the bags would bot have deployed.You would probably have more of a chance for redress if they did deploy, but that's just my humble opinion, as I didn't see the car or the crash.
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