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.
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 has a seat position sensor which
enables the sensing system to monitor the
fore and aft position of the driver’s seat. Seat
position sensors provide information that is used
to determine if the airbags should deploy at a
reduced level or at full deployment.
Your vehicle may or may not have roof-mounted
rollover airbags and a rollover sensor. See
Airbag System on page 83. These “rollover
capable” airbags are intended to inflate in
moderate to severe side crashes, during a rollover,
or in a severe frontal impact. A roof-mounted
rollover airbag will inflate if the crash severity is
above the system’s designed “threshold level.”
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