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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. Your vehicle has an electronic
frontal sensor which helps 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 24 mph (29 to 38.5 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.
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