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When Should an Airbag Inflate?
The driver’s and right front passenger’s frontal airbags
are designed to inflate in moderate to severe frontal
or near-frontal crashes. But they are designed to inflate
only if the impact exceeds a predetermined deployment
threshold. Deployment thresholds take into account
a variety of desired deployment and non-deployment
events and are used to predict how severe a crash
is likely to be in time for the airbags to inflate and help
restrain the occupants. Whether your frontal airbags
will or should deploy is not based on how fast your
vehicle is traveling. It depends largely on what you hit,
the direction of the impact and how quickly your
vehicle slows down.
In addition, your vehicle has “dual stage” frontal airbags,
which adjust the restraint according to crash severity.
For moderate frontal impacts, these airbags inflate at a
level less than full deployment. Your vehicle is
equipped with electronic frontal sensors, which help the
sensing system distinguish between a moderate
frontal impact and a more severe frontal impact. For
more severe frontal impacts, full deployment occurs. If
the front of your vehicle goes straight into a wall
that does not move or deform, the threshold level for
the reduced deployment is about 12 to 18 mph
(19 to 29 km/h), and the threshold level for a full
deployment is about 18 to 25 mph (29 to 40.2 km/h).
(The threshold level can vary, however, with specific
vehicle design, so that it can be somewhat above
or below this range.)
Frontal airbags may inflate at different crash speeds.
For example:
• If the vehicle hits a stationary object, the airbags
could inflate at a different crash speed than if the
vehicle hits a moving object.
• If the vehicle hits an object that deforms, the
airbags could inflate at a different crash speed than
if the vehicle hits an object that does not deform.
• If the vehicle hits a narrow object (like a pole) the
airbags could inflate at a different crash speed
than if the vehicle hits a wide object (like a wall).
• If the vehicle goes into an object at an angle the
airbags could inflate at a different crash speed
than if the vehicle goes straight into the object.
The frontal airbags (driver and right front passenger) are
not intended to inflate during vehicle rollovers, rear
impacts, or in many side impacts.
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