Car Airbags: Safety in Question

What Are Airbags?

A car can get hit from any side, which is why airbags today protect the driver and passengers from contact with various elements of the cabin. The safest SUVs in car lots in Indiana often have a pack of airbags. Here are their main types.

• Frontal. Even budget cars have frontal airbags in the steering wheel hub and the upper right part of the front panel. They protect against impacts to the frontal part of the car (which, according to the Indy Auto Man car repair experts, accounts for about 80% of damage in accidents).
• Lateral. Protect the human body from contact with doors and the B-pillar. It is inevitable when the car is hit on the side - by another vehicle or when colliding with road obstacles. Typically, side airbags are in medium and expensive trim levels of mass-produced cars, and in higher-level models, they are included in the basic version.
• Side. They serve to protect the head from contact with the door glass. When opened, they resemble curtains.
• Knees. These airbags protect the knees of the driver and, less often, the front passenger. Used mainly on expensive models.
• Inter-seat. Airbags installed between the driver and front passenger seats have become widespread. The goal is to prevent their heads from colliding in a side impact, which can also lead to injury.

Even if a car has a full set of airbags, not all deploy during an impact, but only those that can protect against damage at a particular moment. This happens so quickly that the driver and passengers do not have time to notice anything. Moreover, loud pops of squibs precede the opening, which makes you instinctively close your eyes.

How to Find out if the Airbags Work Properly

The first airbag, invented in 1951, did not provide reliable protection. The driver's head met the steering wheel faster than the protection device could fully inflate. Therefore, they found a replacement for compressed air — a squib. When triggered, the resulting gasses are released so quickly and intensely that the airbag inflates almost instantly. It is made of a material with a porous structure, that is, with microholes. Due to them, the airbag deflates immediately after opening. This is necessary to make it easier for people to leave the cabin or to evacuate them (if they are unconscious). All airbags in cars are disposable and cannot be reused.

The cost of new airbags is high, so when restoring cars after an accident, many people ask to install empty pads instead. As a rule, drivers try to get rid of such vehicles immediately, and the safety of the next owner is not much of a concern to the previous one.

Usually, a message on the dashboard or screen will indicate airbag problems. This could be a diagram, the word "Airbag" or the abbreviation SRS. However, sellers suppose the buyer to ask about the indicator, so they either remove the lamp or install a fake with a suitable resistance. You can check whether your car has airbags using diagnostic equipment at a service station. A more laborious method is visual inspection, for which you should dismantle some interior trim elements, but not every seller will be ready to do this.

Why Airbags Can Be Dangerous

There is an opinion that cars with numerous airbags are so safe that one may not use a seat belt, which is fundamentally wrong. On the contrary, airbags can pose an additional danger for an unbelted driver (and/or passenger). Their opening is calculated down to fractions of seconds. When an airbag in a car deploys, it moves towards your head or body at great speed. When the seat belt is fastened, the head meets the front airbag when its volume is already maximum. Without a belt - it meets the pillow at the moment of deployment. That is, it receives an additional blow in the opposite direction. Its strength is similar to that of a professional boxer. Moreover, in the case of frontal airbags, the body continues to move forward, but the head tends back. This can cause damage to the spine.

Airbags are designed to ensure the driver and passengers remain in their seats. Theoretically, airbags should not work if the seat belt is not fastened - this is part of the algorithm built into the control unit. But opponents of seat belts often use plugs (mating parts for the lock), thereby deceiving not only the warning buzzer but also the entire safety system, which believes that the person is wearing a seat belt.

There are also other situations in which airbags create additional danger:

• Incorrect seat adjustment. Many drivers sit too close to the steering wheel, while passengers, on the contrary, push the seat back as far as possible. With this arrangement, the effectiveness of protection is reduced.
• Wrong body position. Rear-seat passengers on a long journey like to sleep in a horizontal position. And those sitting in the front often lift their legs onto the front panel. Both are a surefire way to get more seriously injured than in a normal position.
• Baby car seat in the front. This is not prohibited, but the airbag must be turned off when installing the cradle. Usually, there is a rotary switch at the end of the front panel for this.

Summing up

• Modern cars can have more than a dozen airbags.
• The airbags open in a fraction of a second under the influence of gasses from the combustion of the substance in the squib.
• The airbag provides protection only if the person is in the correct position and wearing a seat belt.
• Restored cars often lack airbags— dishonest sellers save on them by installing plugs.

To avoid dangerous situations and be sure of the car’s safety, it is recommended to buy used cars only from reliable car dealers, Indianapolis, after a thorough inspection.