How did it feel when you hit the airbag?

a reply to: beetee

My one airbag incident involved a car hitting me head on, not that hard, and the unoccupied passenger seat airbag going off. It obviously would not have helped me, except that car rarely had a passenger, and so the bonus $2800 I kept instead of replacing the airbag/dash was a nice financial boon to a car i was preparing to dump in the near future.

So no real airbag story, except that mine didn't go off, wine an unnecessary one did.

a reply to: intrptr

The best of all scenarios, you sir are smart to have purchased a volvo…

Well, I cannot take credit for that, as it was in fact my brother in laws car :-) I was driving an antiquated old thing at the time, where the safety features was pretty much restricted to the seatbelt.

I did, however, purchase a volvo later on, much as a result of my experience, so i guess I wisened up somewhat.

While it is true that Volvo was a bit ahead at some point when safety was concerned, a lot of other car brands have produced some pretty safe vehicles in recent times, so the gap is perhaps not that pronounced anymore.

BT

originally posted by: beetee
But, I have also sometimes entertained the idea that the physical factors lined up so optimally that I didn't in fact hit the airbag with any significant force at all, and that most of the actual work was done (again very optimally) by the seatbelt and the car itself. This would mean that the "incredible softness" would result from a mere brush with the airbag.

You would know if you hadn't hit the airbag, as it would have been a very hard, violent stop for you.

Modern airbags are designed to deploy and fully inflate in 3/100ths to 5/100ths of a second, and be fully deflated after about a third of a second. By the time you hit them, they've already started deflating, so as to cushion the impact and prevent you from bouncing right off. Frankly, given how fast it happens, I would be very surprised if you did recall seeing the airbag or the precise moment of impact with it.

a reply to: beetee

Sometimes you don´t see it coming. A tractor with forks (and they were on belly heigh!!!!) pulled out without looking. He was waiting behind a huge pile of treestems, onto a street where 100 km/h is allowed.

He sliced my right side and catapulted the car up in the air overturning on the sides two times while in the air before it hit the road on the roofedge, making it roll on the street for another two and a half before it impacted a tree with the underside of the car and finally rolled on the roof.
It was like out of the blue because the forks started penetrating the metall just behind the passenger side (!! imagine he entered BEFORE!!). 250ms later and I would be ok, 250ms earlier, I probably would not write this now.

If you tried it, you would not be able to replicate this and if you tried a thousand times.

What I want to say, for me it was like BOOM(fork), white hot powdery thing in my face, BOOM(road) BOOM(tree) BOOM (road upside down, glas shards everywhere)
They had to cut me out of the seat, broken underarms, several cuts and burns in the face and throat and a from now on, hooky nose. Looking back, I wonder how I survived this.

a reply to: beetee

They learned to build cars to survive impacts from the racing industry, I think. They fly apart nowadays, each piece taking some of the energy away from the driver compartment. They are designed that way. Volvo was ahead of its time.

So many things contributed to your surviving that, the worst of crash scenarios is a head on.

You should have been squished… how does that make you feel?

I was in a nasty multiple end over end, rollover washing machine wreck in a muscle car from 60s. Wasn't wearing a seat belt and walked away.

Miracles, if its your time, its your time… and if not, go with humbleness…

a reply to: AdmireTheDistance

No, you are quite right, I did not see the airbag deploy. I didn't see it deflate either, it was just a white sheet of fabric hanging there when I opened my eyes after the impact.

I shut my eyes as I sort of braced for impact, so I didn't see the impact at all. Or rather, my body did all these things of it's own accord, without any concious desicion by me.

You would know if you hadn't hit the airbag, as it would have been a very hard, violent stop for you.

I agree with this. Still, there was other mitigating factors in my particular case, as I have described above. I don't really doubt that I did hit the bag, but perhaps the other factors contributed to the "soft landing" and that is what made it a bit atypical (if it is atypical, of course). Maybe it's just a difference in how we perceive or even describe these things. It's a pretty extreme experience, so perhaps the brain can't adequately cope and our ability to perceive sort of breaks down.

BT

a reply to: intrptr

Yes.
A cage around passengers and crumple zones are what helps in addition to the airbags.
Old cars had massive steel bumpers that didn't deform and take up the force of impact like the plastic and foam does.
I remember my dad and his brother-in-law seeing their first plastic bumper and shaking their heads, saying that it was dangerous and crazy.
Little did they know how many lives would be saved by those 'cheap plastic bumpers'.

a reply to: verschickter

Wow. That's pretty extreme. I agree, that it happens very fast. In my case it was like .. car .. oh no.. BANG .. am I dead? And then the realisation of what had happened. But, when I tried to come to terms with what happened I realised that I had managed to take in a lot of information. I remember the other car swerving, I remember an almost instant reaction happening with my body as it "braced for impact" on its own, and then the feeling of falling into a soft cushion, or feather bed. And then the slow realisation that I was still alive. This all happened in about a second or so. Very strange.

I think the worst part of it was that one moment we were driving home on an fairly ordinary day, and the next second we were sitting in the middle of a lot of twisted metal with smoke and utter confusion. Took me a while to get my bearings after that.

Thanks for sharing.

BT

a reply to: intrptr

You should have been squished… how does that make you feel?

Well, I feel extremely grateful naturally. And, yes, humble. It's hard not to, when you survive something like that without as much as a superficial bruise. And also a bit puzzled as to how it is possible at all.

a reply to: beetee

I was driving a Nissan Almera ... approx 40 mph / 64 kmh along a dual carraigeway
When without warning another vehicle pulled out of a T junction across my path
It was literally a few yards away ... in an instant my foot went for the brake
Whilst I recall thinking...
"This is it then, though there is much more I would like to have achieved before death takes me, Oh well never mind"

BANG ... Like a punch in the face ... the air bag deployed
After a brief moment ... I came round to an acrid smell, very dazed

The impact had dragged the other car several yards up the road
My first instinct was to see if the other driver was OK, which he was apart from whip lash
The air bag saved my life and I felt grateful to who ever invented it
I did have bruised ribs however ...

As has been mentioned ... Time seemed to slow and my clarity seemed sharpened ... or is it we think much faster than we talk ... like the idea of one's life flashing before one in an instant

a reply to: beetee

Yes it leaves scars :-/. Now I´m ultra paranoid on such roads and quattro check every sideroad. But even then, in my case, this would not have helped. From minding your own buisness in peace to squeaking metal, sparks and pain. The best thing the -asshole- in the tractor did not even recognize his fault that
a) he should have looked before driving out and
b) his forks were down!
c) had 1.3% blood alcohol. (!!)

I never got any word more than (translated) "It´s your own fault for driving 'such' a car, wait I turn the car on it´s wheels!!!" while I still was hanging upside down seeing his dirty shoes in front of the sidewindow. In such a tone that I thought, now he´s going to give me the rest. I screamed at him to go # yourself in the knee you will kill me and he kicked against the pilar between the front and backdoor with his shoes.

Still remember how the dirt fell "up" from his shoes to the floor and then he walked away over all the glasshards. In the meantime, another car came to the scene and they called ambulance, police and firefighters (they cut you out in germany in such cases).

Later they got him because the asshole drove away but the women could recognize him later. He went to jail for walking away and lost his license (I hope for lifetime).

If I see him again, god forbids I hope I keep calm.

According to the Russian crash videos 100's if not more people a year have
their airbag deploy:


www.youtube.com...
www.youtube.com...

In one, a girl T-bones another car with her
white sports car because she turned left
and was blocked from sight from the
oncoming car. The collision was not high
speed but sufficient to have the airbag
come out, her head slamming into it.
This was at night and it was dark and
icy.

After the crash, she was got upright and was
stunned and dazed. She then exited out of
her crumpled car and stumbled away
holding her hands to her head. And her
passenger got out too. She was pacing a
bit in disbelief, then put her hands to her
nose, Holding them to her face she kept
holding her nose and then the video ended.



a reply to:

a reply to: beetee

I am going to throw a curve ball into this discussion so feel free to take it with a pinch of salt.

I have never had an airbag deploy in a crash but have had a few nasty ones over the years.

My input though is this.

You mentioned the fluffy pillow type feeling, was it a really pleasant feeling? Like when you wake up on a Sunday morning and you realise you do not have to get up and do stuff? Or like when your in a bubble bath and everything is just lovely?

There is a reason behind me asking this as I think the sensation is more important than the scenario.

Did a lot of fuel system testing for GM for many years and the first thing we did was remove the airbag. Test track drivers generally don't have airbags because of all the stuff we would change with the wiring and the computers wouldn't be programmed sometimes till the car hood was being shut to hit the track.

We had an old truck rim and would take it for demonstrations of the air bags by putting the bad canister in the bottom and sitting a gallon of water on top and doing the big bang for the crowds. people loved it

If one did NOT have an airbag in a moderate head-on collision
one would suffer much, much more without it. The pain
and suffering inflicted by hitting an airbag or having it hit
you is small compared with the major damage one would
have slamming face first into a steering wheel.

Of course they're ineffective on other types of collisions.
Such as many worse types of accidents. Advanced
systems have curtain of airbags which help in these
types of accidents.

a reply to: mikell

a reply to: beetee

I had a friend come into work one day with 2 black eyes and asked him what the heck happened to you?
He said the air bag malfunctioned while driving down the road.

a reply to: beetee

And also a bit puzzled as to how it is possible at all.

Whatever the closing speed was… jump off a building so you hit the ground at that speed and see the difference.

Squash…

your relating the wreck felt like a "soft cushion" is the designed in safety measures. Pretty neat…

a reply to: nonspecific

Yes, if you picture how it feels to let yourself drop forward onto a bed covered with a really soft down comforter. So, yes, a pleasant feeling.

This, however, was a feeling that materialised after the accident when I tried to explain to people asking what it was like.

I am curious now...

BT

a reply to: intrptr

Yeah, I guess that sums it up nicely. Pretty neat indeed...

BT

a reply to: beetee

I felt the same way…