How
does an air bagxestrain?
In moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal collisions,
even belted occupants can contact the steering wheel or
the instrument pmel. The air bag supplements the
protection provided by safety belts. Air bags distribute
the force pf the‘impact more evenly over #e occupant’s
upper body, stopping the occupant more gradually. But
air bags would not~help you in many type:
of
collisions,
including rollovers and rear and side impacts, primarily
because an occupant’s motion is not toward the air bag.
Air bags should never be regarded as anything more
than a supplemenx.’to safety belts, and then
only
in
moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal collisions.
What
will
you
see,after an air bag inflates?
After the
air
bag inflates, it quickly deflqtes.
This
occurs
so
quickly that some people may not even realize the
air
bag inflated. Some components of the air bag module in
the steering wheel hub for
the
driver’s air bag, or the
instrument panel
for
the right front passenger’s bag, will
be hot for a short time, but the part
of
the bag that comes
into contact with you will not be hot to the touch. There
will be some smoke and dust coming from vents in the
deflated
air
bags.
Air
bag inflation will not prevent the
driver from seeing or from being able to steer the
vehicle, nor will
it
stop people
from
leaving the vehicle.
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