Airbag deployment-NEED HELP

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tahoe1987 - 26 Sep 2007 06:27 GMT

Looking for some help. My son was in a parking lot fender bender. His hit a
truck in front of him that had a high and long towing hitch. The hitch went
over the bumper, crunched the hood, and damaged the radiator...and the
airbags deployed. 2-3 eyewitnesses told police officef that my son was
only going about 3-5 mph. Officer said he had to be going faster to cause
the damage he sustained and have airbag deploy. I disagree. So....looking
for any information about airbag deployment and what may have caused it to
deploy at the low speed.

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Bruce L. Bergman - 26 Sep 2007 07:45 GMT

>Looking for some help. My son was in a parking lot fender bender. His hit a
>truck in front of him that had a high and long towing hitch. The hitch went
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>for any information about airbag deployment and what may have caused it to
>deploy at the low speed.

I Am Not An Engineer, Or A Lawyer. But if the front of the car took
that trailer hitch hit right where one of the airbag deployment
sensors was mounted behind the grille...

The concentrated force of the hitch going through the grill and
bending the airbag sensor mounts sideways would fool the sensor into
thinking the hit was much more severe, and that would blow the bags.

If you were poking along at 5 MPH and someone lost control and hit
you head on doing 55, you would want the airbags to deploy. And
that's what the sensor thought just happened.

And as a backup if they still try to make it your fault, most modern
car computers save a "snapshot" of your driving for 5 to 15 seconds
before the crash in memory, a shorter version of the Black Box on
airplanes. Speed, throttle and brake inputs, motion velocities, etc.
Enough information to prove you were only doing 5 MPH. You have to go
to the car maker to dig the info out of the computer.

--<< Bruce >>--

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Calvin - 26 Sep 2007 15:31 GMT

On Sep 26, 12:27 am, "tahoe1987" <kevinnwe...@nospam.comcast.net>
wrote:

> Looking for some help. My son was in a parking lot fender bender. His hit a
> truck in front of him that had a high and long towing hitch. The hitch went
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> Message posted usinghttp://www.talkaboutautos.com/group/alt.autos.ford/
> More information athttp://www.talkaboutautos.com/faq.html

What kind of car was he driving? I know on mine it won't arm the bags
unless you are traveling above a minimum speed. (20? I can't remeber
exactly)

Calvin

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Jeff - 26 Sep 2007 19:30 GMT

How will determining the speed of the car make any difference?

Jeff

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Mike Hunter - 26 Sep 2007 16:37 GMT

Me thinks the officer was correct and the vehicle was likely moving faster.
The SRS is set to deploy at 8 MPH. However if more than one sensor is
activated and the "Safing" sensor is "Set," by the brake being fully applied
the SRS will deploy at any speed.

mike

> Looking for some help. My son was in a parking lot fender bender. His hit
> a
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> Message posted using http://www.talkaboutautos.com/group/alt.autos.ford/
> More information at http://www.talkaboutautos.com/faq.html

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