I have often wondered exactly what the experience is like when the airbag is activated. have any of you experienced this and can you describe it? Can the airbag be activated as a result of a mechanical defect?
Never had a airbag deploy on me…but I know a couple of people who it has deployed on. It scares you more then hurts you. It does slam the bag into your face at 100mph, but it’s very soft. Your skin may also burn a little because of the material used to explode the airbag.
Aso for being actived when it’s NOT suppose to…I think this is very very rare. The only times I’ve heard it happening is when a mechanic is working on your car (specifially the air bag system) and accidently trips it. It’s very very rare that they go of when you’re driving without hitting something. I’d be more worried about them not going off when they should.
According to Phil Edmonston’s Lemon-Aid books, it seems every brand and model has had problems with inadvertent airbag deployment. He doesn’t mention number of occurences per model or brand, but it doesn’t seem to be an extremely rare happening. Rare enough, but still quite possible.
By the way, the powder coating on the airbag is often known to cause eye, skin and respiratory irritation.
I witnessed an accident on the street where I work where a guy making a 90 degree turn in the rain smacked the curb with the L/F tire hard enough to make the airbag go off. He jumped out immediately completely unhurt. If he hadn’t had his seatbelt on he could have been hurt by the airbag.
I heard of a mechanic using a 3/8" air ratchet near the air bag’s impact sensor with either the engine running or the ignition turned on. The vibrations triggered the air bag to deploy. This is really, really, really rare.