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When Should an Airbag Inflate?
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.
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 moderate frontal impacts, these airbags
inflate at a level less than full deployment. 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 16 mph (19 to 26 km/h), and
the threshold level for a full deployment is about
18 to 22 mph (28.9 to 35.4 km/h). (The threshold level
can vary, however, with specific vehicle design, so that it
can be somewhat above or below this range.)
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