# Safety: Airbags too sensitive, deploy too easily in certain accidents like hitting a deer **URL:** \ **Category:** Safety\ **Created:** [May 19, 2023, 1:30pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/safety-airbags-too-sensitive-deploy-too-easily-in-certain-accidents-like-hitting-a-deer/190714 "2023-05-19T13:30:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 6
**Author:** ![TheWonderful90s](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/thewonderful90s/32/29584_2.png) [@TheWonderful90s](https://community.cartalk.com/u/TheWonderful90s)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2023, 5:53pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/safety-airbags-too-sensitive-deploy-too-easily-in-certain-accidents-like-hitting-a-deer/190714/6 "2023-05-19T17:53:45Z")
> [@Frame bent on Rav4. No accidents. PLS help](https://community.cartalk.com/t/frame-bent-on-rav4-no-accidents-pls-help/190683/26): > > As apposed to putting in the back of the car somewhere??? lol > It’s a front crash sensor, kind of needs to be upfront close… And a Deer can total out a car or at least go through the windshield, so if the air bag stops an antler from stabbing me in the throat I am OK with that… > Maybe the engineers discovered that if they moved the airbag crash sensor closer to the rad that the front bumper would not cave in far enough to hit the sensor to pop the bag before your face slammed into the steering wheel or dash… It is a timing thing, everything has to be placed in the right spot so there is time for the bag to deploy before hitting whatever it is trying to keep you from hitting it, too slow and you are missing teeth, too fast and you are hitting a bag that is already started to deflate… If you know better then the engineers in this case then make your own mounting bracket for the sensor, put it where you think it would work the best and do your own crash test to see how much better you made it… You could make millions off your new design… They could put it in the back. Not all cars have airbag sensors in remote locations. Some just have them in the airbag control unit. Yes, the airbags need to deploy early on in a crash before the occupants move too close to the airbags. Putting airbag sensors up in the front, one on each side, somewhere behind the bumper as many vehicles do must help determine if there is a real accident instead of running in to snow or barrels or something where the airbags shouldn’t deploy. But doing this isn’t mandatory. Putting a sensor in such a soft spot in the grille is going way too far in my opinion. I would not buy a car where a deer hit that smashed my hood would deploy the airbag. > [@Frame bent on Rav4. No accidents. PLS help](https://community.cartalk.com/t/frame-bent-on-rav4-no-accidents-pls-help/190683/28): > > Yes. Let’s put the front impact sensor at the rear bumper. That way the dangerous airbags won’t deploy until after the deer has traveled through the windshield, passenger compartment, and trunk. Does that meet with your approval? 😆 Yes it is better. I see nothing wrong with airbag systems which have all of the front impact sensors contained within the airbag control unit. But I’m willing to learn more about why some designs do it this way versus having sensors behind the bumper. The 1992-1996 Camry puts them under the front of the upper radiator support on each side. If that area gets smashed the car is probably totaled anyway and the accident is more than a fender bender. The next Camry put them on top of the frame rails just behind the bumper mounts. Seems a low speed crash that under rode someone’s rear bumper would either deploy the airbags too soon, or worse it would dislodge the airbag sensors and prevent them from working in a secondary collision accident. --- _[View the full topic](https://community.cartalk.com/t/safety-airbags-too-sensitive-deploy-too-easily-in-certain-accidents-like-hitting-a-deer/190714)._