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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 help the sensing system distinguish between
a moderate frontal impact and a more severe frontal
impact. For moderate frontal impacts, the 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 16 to 20 mph (26 to 32 km/h),
and the threshold level for a full deployment is
25 to 30 mph (40 to 48 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.
Frontal airbags (driver and right front passenger) are
not intended to inflate during vehicle rollovers, rear
impacts, or in many side impacts.
Your vehicle may or may not have roof-mounted side
impact airbags. See Airbag System on page 1-54.
Roof-mounted side impact airbags are intended to inflate
in moderate to severe side crashes. A roof-mounted side
impact airbag will inflate if the crash severity is above the
system’s designed “threshold level.” The threshold level
can vary with specific vehicle design. Roof-mounted
side impact airbags are not intended to inflate in frontal
or near-frontal impacts, rollovers or rear impacts.
A roof-mounted side impact airbag is intended to
deploy on the side of the vehicle that is struck.
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