I have 2022 M3 LR met with an accident on a highway last week. Grand Cherokee hit my car from behind with 100 mph and my car spun multiple times and hit gaurd rail and stopped on the right lane. M3 Severely damaged front & back, Insurance declared total loss. Luckily i have survived the crash without major injuries. I am surprised that air bags never deployed on my Car.
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Tesla Model 3 Accident - Why didnt Airbags Deploy?
- Thread starter jhr377
- Start date
apparently the car hit guardrail and the impact was on front side. so wondering why air bags are not deployed.
Yes, but if the car was in a spin while hitting the guardrail with the front, there is a good chance that the physics involved did not warrant a deployment based on their algorithms. BTW, glad you are OK.
E90alex
Active Member
If you escaped without major injuries then the airbags did not need to deploy. People think cars need to turn into inflatable bouncy houses at the slightest impact but airbags can cause more harm than good if they deploy when not absolutely needed.
Some form of this question is asked on every car forum, with accidents like this.
The very simple answer is, the very fact that you are still here to post about this, means the car did exactly what it was supposed to do to protect the occupant. The car made a decision that the airbags were not needed, and you are posting on a message board about the accident so obviously well enough to at least do that.
That means the car chose correctly.
Friend of mine broke his arm from an airbag activation. Airbags have a benefit and a risk.
Lindenwood
Active Member
The crumple zones on these vehicles are huge, because the car doesn’t have to protect a fuel tank under the trunk or an engine under the hood*. The [de]acceleration required to trigger airbags is much higher than people expect, and the direction is much more specific than we expect. Because the car body has feet of front/rear crumple zones rather than inches, it can (and should) actually take quite a bit of apparent damage before acceleration to the occupants actually require airbags.
Bottom line, all airbags would have gained you are facial bruises and burns!
**Front-engined ICE vehicles don’t have to “protect” the engine itself, but they need to make sure that tree doesn’t shove the 500lb engine/transmission through the cabin…
Bottom line, all airbags would have gained you are facial bruises and burns!
**Front-engined ICE vehicles don’t have to “protect” the engine itself, but they need to make sure that tree doesn’t shove the 500lb engine/transmission through the cabin…
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The frontal hit probably was not severe enough to deploy the airbags. Since you did not have major injuries, this appears to have been the correct decision by the car, since airbags can cause injuries and should only be deployed in situations where the expected injury is worse without airbag deployment than with airbag deployment.
You realize Airbags are going to feel Ike mike Tyson at his peak just punch you right? They’re not fluffy pillows. So if you’re posting this and you’re fine and you didn’t hit anything inside the car consider yourself lucky. Airbags are gonna hurt like hell.
fholbert
Active Member
Holy crap, you got clobbered!
Good info. Amazing how well the car absorbed the impact.
Soul Surfer
Cancervivor, tech geek & musician
BitJam
Active Member
Glad you're okay!
www.nhtsa.gov
Air Bags | NHTSA
Learn about the safety benefits of frontal and side airbags and how to safely position yourself and passengers to avoid an airbag related injury.
Because air bags deploy very rapidly, serious or sometimes fatal injuries can occur if the driver or passenger is too close to – or comes in direct contact with – the air bag when it first begins to deploy.
If air bags aren't needed, it's safer to not deploy them.
stopcrazypp
Well-Known Member
This misperception is so widespread and people think airbags are like fluffy pillows, when in fact they are explosive and can seriously injure you if they are deployed unnecessarily. Basically many people think their car is defective if airbags did not deploy. But if the person is not seriously injured from the crash, there was no need to deploy them in the first place, as it deploys based on g-forces, not on the amount the car is crushed.Glad you're okay!
Air Bags | NHTSA
Learn about the safety benefits of frontal and side airbags and how to safely position yourself and passengers to avoid an airbag related injury.
Because air bags deploy very rapidly, serious or sometimes fatal injuries can occur if the driver or passenger is too close to – or comes in direct contact with – the air bag when it first begins to deploy.If air bags aren't needed, it's safer to not deploy them.
” Luckily i have survived the crash without major injuries“
There you have it, that is why your airbags did not deploy.
Airbags are a last resort, and when not needed, they won’t deploy, they are that smart these days.
There you have it, that is why your airbags did not deploy.
Airbags are a last resort, and when not needed, they won’t deploy, they are that smart these days.
By the way the dashcam and camera footage on the day of the crash does not exist at all. The footage of the dash cam and events exist/saved for the last 30 days but not on the day of the crash.
Do you guys think camera footage was wiped out due to the impact and the car was shutdown. ?
Do you guys think camera footage was wiped out due to the impact and the car was shutdown. ?
rpiotro
Active Member
I'd like to possibly clarify some of the comments here about the explosive nature of the airbags. Almost all modern cars use a two stage system on the main air bags depending on the nature of the crash and/or if the passenger is restrained or not. They can fire both canisters in parallel for a nearly instantaneous fill and greater protection or fire them in series for a slower and longer inflation. Either way, it is still like getting a good punch in the face. Just a matter of degree. Never a pleasant experience. Bloody noses are quire common. Just better than the alternative. And they are loud. Your ears will be ringing for a while after.
So yes, if it is determined that they are not needed at all that is a good thing.
So yes, if it is determined that they are not needed at all that is a good thing.
BitJam
Active Member
This is very strange.
Did you remove the TeslaCam drive from the car and look in the RecentClips folder? The most recent hour of video should be in there. The next step is to use an undelete or file recovery program to find all the erased files on the drive.
I cannot imagine how the crash would cause the entire day's video from before the crash (and nothing else) to go missing. Do you remember if the dashcam was working on the day of the crash? I think there is a red dot on the icon on the touchscreen when it's recording.
The dashcam USB storage devices can malfunction and stop recording even if files can still be read from them. If video from that day is not on the drive, my guess is the drive stopped recording that day or was accidentally turned off. I realize this is unlikely and unlucky but I don't think it's possible for a crash to cause videos from that one day to disappear. Newer files are not more fragile than older ones.
