I need advice; my daughter just had accident on 2011 Honda Accord (sedan), her front end with a 1980 Cadillac Seville, the Cadillac rear bump had a few dent, but my daughter’s car front bumper come out, radiator 45 degree angle upback ward. There was no single air bag come out. I called Honda USA, was told, because speed at accident was low, therefore, air bag did not deploy…
Here is my questions, was there air bag sensors build in front bumper and front hood? If front bumper come out completely, and front hood cooked 35 degree angle, where were sensors? Is this a manufacture defeat on sensor?
Big questions, should we just take check from insurance company walk away from this car or repair – resale it?
There are “crash” sensors located in several places throughout the car. Even in places you’d least expect it.
Airbags deploy when they need to. If the collision isn’t fast enough, in the right direction, if the car isn’t accelerating or decelerating fast enough, and a host of other things, the air bags will not deploy. All this decision making happens faster than the accident. An airbag deploying when it doesn’t need to can do more harm than good. So they don’t always go off. That’s how the system is designed.
If your daughter walked away relatively unhurt then the restraint systems on the car did their job.
The air bag sensors often are mounted on the frame rails or on the radiator support. The air bags do not always deploy just because there was a front end impact.
Determining factors could be, speed, area of impact, angle of impact, etc.
I have seen plenty of vehicles that rolled and not single bag deployed.
The vehicle computer (ECU) has control over when and if an airbag deploys. It uses a complicated mathematical formula to determine the correct criteria for deployment. The ECU receives signals from the various sensors (such as crash sensors) and decides if and when each air bag should deploy. The Honda worked as advertised.
In my experience there are usually 3 sensors, two on the front of the car near the frame horns and one in the passenger compartment, I believe two out of 3 sensors have to “trigger” to get airbag deployment, at least its that way with early 2000 gm’s.
The wreck didn’t sound severe enough where airbags would have done any good. An Airbag deployment is a very violent explosion. You do not want them going off unless absolutely necessarily. Its not hard for airbags to do more harm than good.
They sound as if they worked as designed, even if there was heavy damage its possible that the car crumpled enough where deceleration was slow enough to avoid deployment.
Just because the plastic bumper is torn off doesn’t mean it was anything very serious. It doesn’t really take much to rip a bumper off, and there is no or very little protection for the radiator from the front. Now the Caddy with heavy metal bumpers is like a tank.
I remember my 59 Pontiac had a side of the rear bumper out of alignment. No matter what I tried, it was impossible to bend that bumper back into shape again. Now that was front and rear protection.
thanks goes everyone here, trust me, i was not interested to sue Honda USA or sth near there, as small business owner with poor english, i hate greedy American lawyers, believe they and all politician in DC are the reason this country got in so much trouble… i was only interested whether the car is still repairable or not, and whether i should keep it let my kid continue drive it…now, our decision is made - we will go Chev Vote, according to my wife and daughter, someone has to takecare environment!
Only thing about the Volt and the Tesla is you’ve got to be a little more concerned about fires but do what you think is best. I think they have the Volt under control now but who knows?
And welcome to the US is you are new here and English is not spoken very well on this site anyway. We need hard working entreprenuers that have a healthy distrust of their elected officials. Keeps everyone honest and focused.
You said you have poor English, but you have described my feelings about lawyers perfectly. I could not have said it better.
The reparability of the vehicle can and will be determined by the shop that evaluates the car. The cost to repair it will be review with the insurance company’s adjuster, and either the car will be repaired or it’ll be determined to be “totaled” because the cost to repair it will be greater than the value of the car (actually, a percentage of the value depending on the policy) and you’ll be notified accordingly. At that time you’ll be able to exercise the option to pay for the difference between the actual cost and the insurance company’s valuation of the vehicle, or accept their check and move on, at which time they’ll take possession of the vehicle… If this doesn’t sound fair, that’s because it isn’t; both the policy and the laws were written by lawyers…
Sounds like you’ve already made the decision to move forward and get a Chevy Volt. You’ve placed your daughter’s safety above monetary considerations. You’ve earned great respect from me, sir. I truly wish everyone cared more about their children than their money.