Airbags failed to deploy! How common?

[edyvw]

Last night I was witness to an accident and then some.
Young girl in 1st generation VW Touareg was driving in left lane maybe 20-25mph. Lady in Nissan Altima was in right lane and made sudden turn to the left to make U-Turn. Touareg t-Boned Altima. Girl didn’t have a chance to touch the brake. Really surreal situation. Anyway, lady flees with destroyed rear door, wheel with camber of some -20 degrees etc. I catch up with her aftee she made stop at intersection, ran red light etc. Anyway, her car is totaled. I asked her if she is ok, and she had visible injuries to face, left eye, bruised skin. I was under impression that airbag injured her, but it was actually left B pillar.
So, I am kind of confused how, as it is maybe 4-5y old Altima, so should have side airbags. Anyway, I go to the car, and to my astonishment, none of airbags deployed. Her side behind B pillar is absolutely obliterated. Actually, rear seat moved, floor reinforcements are moved, and luckily no one was sitting in the back, as I am not sure how their feet would do. Car has side airbags, yet no deployment. I checked car a bit while waiting cops, and it seems no one tempered with roof lining, and she claims she got car recently from Car Max.
Anyone seen something like this? I mean car is totaled, and idk how she managed to flee on that wheel as one control arm was just dangling.

 

[Vil_Riker]

Would Carmax sell a car with the airbag light on?

 

[SC Maintenance]

Side airbags deploy on rollover. There is no sensor for being smashed in the side -which I believe is what your describing, unless it was so strong as to set off the G-force sensor - which would be far away in this case.

 

[KrisZ]

The car probably has been already in an accident before and has been repaired by some shady people.

 

[drtyler]

Side airbags deploy on rollover. There is no sensor for being smashed in the side -which I believe is what your describing, unless it was so strong as to set off the G-force sensor - which would be far away in this case.

I have seen side airbags deployed on side impacts many times.

 

[KrisZ]

Side airbags deploy on rollover. There is no sensor for being smashed in the side -which I believe is what your describing, unless it was so strong as to set off the G-force sensor - which would be far away in this case.

No, that is simply not true. Side airbags definitely deploy during a side collision, they even deploy during a small overlap front crash.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Side airbags deploy on rollover. There is no sensor for being smashed in the side -which I believe is what your describing, unless it was so strong as to set off the G-force sensor - which would be far away in this case.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Takata

 

[edyvw]

Side airbags deploy on rollover. There is no sensor for being smashed in the side -which I believe is what your describing, unless it was so strong as to set off the G-force sensor - which would be far away in this case.

Oh man, that Touareg flipped that Altima some 120 degrees around. It moved the floor, rear seat is crumped. There were plenty G’s there.

 

[edyvw]

The car probably has been already in an accident before and has been repaired by some shady people.

It is sold by what should be reputable seller. I mean, car definitely looked in very good condition. Lights bit foggy, so assuming never replaced.

 

[Pelican]

Last night I was witness to an accident and then some.
Young girl in 1st generation VW Touareg was driving in left lane maybe 20-25mph. Lady in Nissan Altima was in right lane and made sudden turn to the left to make U-Turn. Touareg t-Boned Altima. Girl didn’t have a chance to touch the brake. Really surreal situation. Anyway, lady flees with destroyed rear door, wheel with camber of some -20 degrees etc. I catch up with her aftee she made stop at intersection, ran red light etc. Anyway, her car is totaled. I asked her if she is ok, and she had visible injuries to face, left eye, bruised skin. I was under impression that airbag injured her, but it was actually left B pillar.
So, I am kind of confused how, as it is maybe 4-5y old Altima, so should have side airbags. Anyway, I go to the car, and to my astonishment, none of airbags deployed. Her side behind B pillar is absolutely obliterated. Actually, rear seat moved, floor reinforcements are moved, and luckily no one was sitting in the back, as I am not sure how their feet would do. Car has side airbags, yet no deployment. I checked car a bit while waiting cops, and it seems no one tempered with roof lining, and she claims she got car recently from Car Max.
Anyone seen something like this? I mean car is totaled, and idk how she managed to flee on that wheel as one control arm was just dangling.

Had an accident with a Nissan Maxima, skidded on black ice, hit all 4 corners and the car was totalled, but air bags did not deploy.
I asked Nissan about that and they said for the airbags to deploy the impact must be frontal, Talking about the bags in the steering wheel and dashboard.

 

[KrisZ]

It is sold by what should be reputable seller. I mean, car definitely looked in very good condition. Lights bit foggy, so assuming never replaced.

Not saying that Car Max did it. However they were buying up used cars like crazy not too long ago as long as they looked decent and were few years old.

I bet plenty of shady mechanics and body shops took advantage of this. It’s not that hard to bypass the modules so that they don’t throw a code. Car Max would never know.

 

[GON]

Not saying that Car Max did it. However they were buying up used cars like crazy not too long ago as long as they looked decent and were few years old.

I bet plenty of shady mechanics and body shops took advantage of this. It’s not that hard to bypass the modules so that they don’t throw a code. Car Max would never know.

I am sure one can fool the air bag system to disguise/mask a defective airbag system. I also suspect fixing a defective airbag system is significantly easier than disguising/masking a defective airbag system as properly working.

 

[edyvw]

Had an accident with a Nissan Maxima, skidded on black ice, hit all 4 corners and the car was totalled, but air bags did not deploy.
I asked Nissan about that and they said for the airbags to deploy the impact must be frontal, Talking about the bags in the steering wheel and dashboard.

This was side. Car has side airbags. That is what is confusing. This was major impact. This Touareg is well over 5,000lbs.

 

[PimTac]

Probably not her car.

 

[fsdork]

All kinds of what-ifs here. Among them; the forces could have been more rotational (yaw) than lateral if the moment arm between the centroid of damage and centre of mass is great enough. If the airbag module doesn't see lateral delta-v meeting the threshold, it won't deploy. A vehicle can rotate about its centre of mass quite violently, yet not experience enough lateral acceleration to trigger deployment.

Or - insert any number of other possibilities -.

 

[The Critic]

Accident investigators should be able to find answers to this one. Without going into details, I am aware of someone who was recently hired to investigate situations like this.

 

[KrisZ]

I am sure one can fool the air bag system to disguise/mask a defective airbag system. I also suspect fixing a defective airbag system is significantly easier than disguising/masking a defective airbag system as properly working.

In a lot of cases you can do it with a resistor. Just like disabling the VCM on Hondas.

 

[GON]

In a lot of cases you can do it with a resistor. Just like disabling the VCM on Hondas.

What resistor? Who is the supplier of this resistor? Is the resistor one size fits all? Please point me to a website that sells a resistor to override a defective airbag system in a Nissan.

I suspect fooling the airbag system for a car made after 2010 is much more complex than a resistor.

 

[edyvw]

Probably not her car.

The car was her. I know as I had to stay for like 2hrs as she fled the scene, I had to go back to the original scene to get the cops as they apparently forgot to come to the place where I caught up with her.
After that, it turned into Jerry Springer show. Ex husband showed up with no shirt. Cop asked her is that was her husband, she yelled at cop: ex, ex-husband. At that point, I told the cop: let me sign everything I need, as I was not sure I wanted to stay for this, as much as it looked like interesting drama. I think she was impaired to drive.