Surprised by lack of airbag deployment...

Scania

Scania

Scania

Caporegime
Joined
25 Nov 2004
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On the road....
This VW has turned up in the yard at work, were right next to Jct 15 of the M6 so I'm assuming it's had a bang and been dragged into there until its recovered.

What's really surprising though is the extent of frontal damage but no deployment of the airbags....

I'm assuming it couldn't have been as hard an impact as it looks....

Thoughts? (Apart from another VW off the roads!! :D)





 
It actually looks more like a lorry or other large vehicle has reversed into it or similar rather than its had a smash.
 
Seen worse without deployment. Aorbags will only go off if needed just like the seatbelt tensioners as if they go off at random then it could do more damage than good.
 
Also, airbags will only go off if certain conditions are met. That included (or used to) seat belt pre-tensioners.

It's therefore possible that if there was no passenger or no one wearing a seatbelt then they might not have gone off. The former being supported by minimal damage to the drivers side.

Of course, this is all with my OcUK Crash Detector hat on, so you know, it's legit info
 
Even if was a RTC It;s all squishy stuff anyway. Hasn't even hit the bumper bar / longit to initiate much G force in the cabin/occupant.

Any damage to the driver in this case would have come from the airbag deployment! Plus its now a lot cheaper to fix and stuff like that effects the Thatcham insurance ratings. Which is why a lot of entry cars offer halogen front lamps, cost of ownership after low speed impact.
 
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Probably wasn't as hard as smash as you might think. Seems to be over the top of any hard stuff, so has been crumpled like a coke can.
 
When I smooshed my 2002 Polo (bumper, slam panel, wing, bonnet, radiator, front exhaust, cat, wishbone, headlight, innet wing bent, etc) I was surprised but thankful that the airbags didn't go off. More expense if they had. :p
 
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kindai said:
It actually looks more like a lorry or other large vehicle has reversed into it or similar rather than its had a smash.
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Wonder if its something like it went into the back of a slower moving lorry but consequentially didn't come to an abrupt halt - the centre of the damage seems quite high.
 
ZeeWrath said:
mirrors folder in so could have been parked? might just of been folded for transport though
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It was locked when I took the photos.

Yes maybe it hit a truck, the damage is quite high but certainly looks quite severe in the flesh as such, oh well, thought I'd ask. :)
 
Yeah, if you get a 44 tonne lorry backing into that, it'd easily do that kind of damage. Certainly looks like that as the bottom of the car isn't too badly damaged but the bonnet and wing is ruined.

Also sometimes airbags just don't go off when they're meant to.
 
Acme said:
When I smooshed my 2002 Polo (bumper, slam panel, wing, bonnet, radiator, front exhaust, cat, wishbone, headlight, innet wing bent, etc) I was surprised but thankful that the airbags didn't go off. More expense if they had. :p
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I may be wrong but I think if a car's airbags go off it's an automatic write off?
 
Vanilla said:
I may be wrong but I think if a car's airbags go off it's an automatic write off?
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i don't think that's true but I'm sure it would make a significant difference to the cost of repair so im sure the majority of car would end up being written off.
 
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