How fast do you have to go to do this.

[Quattro Pete]

quote:

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Originally posted by farrarfan1:
Pablo, modern occupant protection systems won't allow the airbags to fire if it senses the seatbelts aren't in use.It's not unusual to see very severe impacts with unrestrained drivers/occupants and no airbag deployment.

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It was my understanding that they would still deploy, just at a different rate, to account for different body movement with no seatbelt on, at least on some cars.

That said, it's also possible the car in question did not have an airbag. In some countries, when people don't have comprehensive insurance and try to fix a car with on low budget, they will not replace a deployed airbag with a new one. Common practice in my home country for example.

 

[iontrap]

Got these pics in an email at work about a year ago.

 

[Al]

quote:

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Originally posted by Dan4510:
Ah, another gene pool cleansing.

Dan

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I love happy endings.

 

[farrarfan1]

quote:

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Originally posted by Quattro Pete:

quote:

---

Originally posted by farrarfan1:
Pablo, modern occupant protection systems won't allow the airbags to fire if it senses the seatbelts aren't in use.It's not unusual to see very severe impacts with unrestrained drivers/occupants and no airbag deployment.

---

It was my understanding that they would still deploy, just at a different rate, to account for different body movement with no seatbelt on, at least on some cars.

That said, it's also possible the car in question did not have an airbag. In some countries, when people don't have comprehensive insurance and try to fix a car with on low budget, they will not replace a deployed airbag with a new one. Common practice in my home country for example.

---

Different companies have taken different approaches. In my wifes Chevy Uplander there is a warning light on the dash that shows if the passenger side airbag is on or off. Our daughter is 11 but very little. She can sit in the seat and it will switch to on. She can move forward and it will switch to off.Cross legged it will go off.

 

[farrarfan1]

quote:

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Originally posted by Al:

quote:

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Originally posted by Dan4510:
Ah, another gene pool cleansing.

Dan

---

I love happy endings.

---

Me too.

 

[brianl703]

quote:

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modern occupant protection systems won't allow the airbags to fire if it senses the seatbelts aren't in use

---

Depends on what you mean by "modern", I suppose, as many cars up until about 2000 did NOT have this feature.

The airbag system in my 1996 Contour, by the way, has a sensor in the front bumper and a "safing" sensor in the airbag module itself. Both must be tripped in order for the airbags to fire.

Therefore, not all front impacts will result in the airbags going off.

 

[moribundman]

On my '96 Audi A4 (B5) the airbags will deploy only if impact occurs at specific angles (and above certain speeds. The airbag will never deploy if the Audi gets rearended. My '96 has only driver and passenger front airbags. The car in the picture is a newer A4 (B6).

 

[farrarfan1]

Calculating impact speed when the vehicle is seperated like this one is extremely difficult.Tiremarks on the road might help. Which one of the following apply?
1.Spirited driver.
2.Aggressive driver.
3.Wide open throttle.
4.Driven like it's stolen.
5.Driven hard daily.
6.All of the above.

 

[michaelc80]

"Can we have more details, because I don't want this to turn into an Audi thread"

These were passed onto me by way of a Power Point presentation for young drivers.

 

[moribundman]

quote:

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I thought "wrapped around a tree" was just a figure of speech!

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That exact same expression exists in other languages for a reason.

I'd say over 125 mph at the moment of impact is very likely. I've unfortunately seen a few accidents like that in person. If there was one person in the car I'd suspect alcohol or suicide, if there were two, I'd suspect alcohol.

PS: That has nothing to do with "sporty" or "spirited" driving."

 

[robbobster]

quote:

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Originally posted by moribundman:

If there was one person in the car I'd suspect alcohol or suicide, if there were two, I'd suspect alcohol.

PS: That has nothing to do with "sporty" or "spirited" driving."

---

Interesting point about suicide.

I've seen research appers that attribute a lot of single-vehicle crashes to suicide. Especially crashes into bridge/overpass abuttments, where no skid marks or other evasive maneuvering was evident.

 

[Tosh]

quote:

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Originally posted by moribundman:
The car in the picture is a newer A4 (B6).

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I say it's an A3. Sorry Pablo, but now it's an Audi thread....

 

[moribundman]

Hmm, I think you're right. Looks like an A3.

 

[TheTanSedan]

(If it had been a '64 Imperial you could have hauled and sold the downed timber to get the front bumper fixed).

 

[Matt_S]

Also note that this is a side hit. It probably never tripped the crash sensors to fire the bags.

 

[moribundman]

quote:

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(If it had been a '64 Imperial you could have hauled and sold the downed timber to get the front bumper fixed).

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Maybe -- but they still would have had to scrape the driver off the dash.

 

[TheTanSedan]

(Naw, he'd have put a knot on his head . . huge lap belts -- aircraft-quality -- on those Imps.)