What’s it like to sit through a crash/air bag deployment?

Knock on wood Ive never been in an accident like that. But I was first in the scene of a pretty significant offset head on A few years back. What I recall is that the airbags were smoking out powder a few minutes after the release, and that the kids that got tensioned in the rear seat belts had pretty substantial rope burn type injuries ( it were ok otherwise).
 
Pretty unpleasant, only lasting effect is a burn scar on my forearm from contact friction with whatever the material they are made of during deployment that still gets sore 7 yrs later...........next level rug burn!

Don't remember much else about it other than it knocked me pretty silly.....
most likely it was the propellant gasses that burned you, quite common.
 
I wear a watch all the time, and the thought of my wrist slapping my face with a big stainless steel diver type is not a pleasant concept. Fortunately not many people smoke a pipe while driving...or eat popsicles. Scary thread.
ever seen wooden steering wheels break? they form a stake at the 12 o clock position....
 
Funny enough, the one I've actually been around going off in a car was with me driving and no passenger. For whatever reason, the passenger bag popped but not the driver(and no, there was nothing sitting in the passenger seat). I was glad of that as it wasn't a terrible collision(the front end of the car looked nasty but it was driveable aside from a cracked t-stat housing). I was 100% unscathed without the bag aside from being a little sore the next day, and expect that the bag might have hurt me worse. The seatbelt tensioner did fire.

In any case, I knew the accident was coming, and basically went painfully deaf as I watched the windshield crash and spiderweb in front of me. I barely caught the bag inflating out of the corner of my eye, but it was mostly flat by the time I looked over at it a second or two later. My ears were ringing for the rest of the day. The broken windshield was not from the accident, but from the passenger bag. Those pack a whollop-I'm told more than the driver bag since they are larger to take up the greater space between the seat and dash vs. the steering wheel. The cracked windshield is supposedly normal for passenger bags also.

One of my college friends had grown up working in a body shop his dad owned. He brought airbags frequently and-under the supervision of a professor-we'd pop them on the front lawn of the college. Maybe it wasn't the smartest thing, but we'd run about 30ft of wire to them and they'd normally go off from a lantern battery. We would put them bag down and the bag+housing would fly probably 15-30 ft in the air. We did a fair few 90s GM driver bags which were reliable and repeatable. One of the most specatular ones was a passenger bag from a Kia. Granted from what I understand now bags are "smart" and the car can vary the deployment force as appropriate for the accident. We did a few side curtains also, but they were kind of boring. As best as we could tell, they're not pyrotechnic like the front ones, but seem to have a cylinder of gas that gets released to inflate them. They're slower than front ones, and also seem to stay inflated for a while.

Airbags save a lot of lives in serious collisions, but they're also nasty business when they do go off. They're definitely worthy of respect, and as much as I enjoy working on my own cars that's one thing I'd never do myself.
 
I was the first one to attend to a person in an overturned mini van. The airbag deployed and it had a very acrid smell. The lady was extremely disoriented and couldn't respond to my questions so I just stayed with her until the properly trained personnel arrived on scene. I could not tell if she was on drugs or mentally impaired or if the crash caused the disorientation. I'm sure the professionals have experience in that.

My wife hit a utility pole and the airbag deployed. She got a fat lip and bruise across her chest. Vehicle was totaled.
 
Watched one from a right angle through the guys driver’s side window. The car in front of him took off on green but hit the brakes because a fire truck was coming from the side. The guy behind ran into the bumper and the bag went off. It was so fast I wasn’t sure it actually happened. The guy started yelling the magical word but was OK.
 
I’ve never been in one, and I’ve been in pileups and even one slowish speed head on. But none crushed the front end to the point where the sensors activated.

I’ve seen air bags after they deployed when passing by a scene. Even saw it once on a runaway car (brake fade and/or vapor lock) that ended up in a dead stop. I didn’t see any sign of burns, but the driver and passenger clearly had bruises from the seat belts.
 
I wear a watch all the time, and the thought of my wrist slapping my face with a big stainless steel diver type is not a pleasant concept. Fortunately not many people smoke a pipe while driving...or eat popsicles. Scary thread.

I think eyeglasses might be the thing that’s an issue. A few times I drove wearing contacts but with glass lens shades. They’re supposed to have superior optics and are way heavy. Not sure what safety standards are in place.
 
Airbags saved my life and got my daughter a lower car payment!! Back in 2002 my daughter had just bought a new VW Jetta. She was going on deployment(EOD in Navy) and she bought it before she left so she would have a new car when she got back. Car was 3 weeks old, I dropped her off at the NAS and was bringing her car to my home in Pa to keep for the 8 months she was to be away. She was in Va and I live in Pa. The old saying was most accidents happen less than 25 miles away from home.

Well I was about 6 miles away from home and this drunk in a E350 camper van crossed the lane and hit me head on. All airbags deployed. The smell I don't remember, I remember looking on the floor for my glasses, they ended up on the passenger floor and I can't see crap without them. Got out of car and was full of white powder and my arms had some burns on them and I was a little disoriented but I survived to walk away.

The drunk took of with his smashed van but I was able to call police on my cell and the got him. What pissed me off was when the police came and I told them what happened they proceeded to give me a DUI test!!! The second officer reported the van and they got him on Rte 81.

Informed daughter, she was pissed and I told her I would handle all the insurance issues and get her a new car. Car was rollbacked to the VW dealer where she bought it. She had bought in Pa to keep her registration cheaper vs VA prices.
I went to dealer to let them know and they told me it was totalled so I contacted insurance and they said it was fully covered. I went into dealer and noticed a large sign that they were having a customer loyalty sale for owners of VW's that were 2 yrs old or less. I found the original salesperson and informed her of the situation and got an additional $2500 off of my daughters new vehicle(it was only 3 1/2 weeks old) You should of seen the look of the salesperson face when I asked about the loyalty program!!! Daughter did not even make first payment on car yet!!

Airbags work!! Her insurance company then informed her that I was not permitted to drive her vehicle any longer due to accident even though it was caused by a drunk. When she came back I handed her the keys to her new car and told her about the VW loyalty sale, she laughed and at that point she called and cancelled her insurance company and berated them for me not allowing to drive her car when it was another persons fault. She then went with another company.
 
The only real accident I’ve been in is when my dad lost control of his truck and put it head on into a guard rail at 25’ish mph. Missed the bumper entirely and hit up on the grille/headlights of our 2004 Silverado 1500... airbags didn’t go off, but it pushed the whole cab of the truck back ~2 inches, had to kick open the doors.

But like a few other people said, we were both just kind of dazed for a few seconds before we realized what just happened.
 
What pissed me off was when the police came and I told them what happened they proceeded to give me a DUI test!!!
Not to veer too far off-topic, but it is a good thing to have that you passed field sobriety in the police report. It is less arguing the other insurance company can do when it comes time to pay your bills. If you're both under the influence it becomes an outright mess, whereas if its just the other idiot, then they usually don't question much and pay a lot easier.
 
Dec. 17, 2019, about 1:30 AM CST I was heading west on I-10 in Jackson County, Fla. driving my 2006 Ford Explorer, past the Apalachicola River but not quite to Marianna... about as close as you can get to nowhere when you're east of the Mississippi. My 80 y.o. mother was in the passenger seat. Had the cruise control set to 74 and was enjoying my heated seat... took a sip from my coffee and looked up just in time to see a doe jump over the guard rail right in front of me. My foot went for the brake but didn't make it before impact. Hit her on the driver's side front. Blew both front airbags, both seatbelt pretensioners, the collapsible steering column and tripped the inertia switch. Airbag knocked both hands off the wheel and the impact spun us around so we were going BACKWARDS at highway speed. Fortunately there was no other traffic, I got us stopped and pushed the car to the shoulder. Poor cell service but after several failed calls I got FHP dispatched and they made a crash report and arranged a tow to my home 200+ miles away.

I felt fine, insides of my arms were pretty red for a few days and I was sore the following morning. Mother was shaken up but fine otherwise. Three hours later I was driving a rented F-250 pretending nothing had happened.

After lots of argument my insurer paid for the repairs using all OE parts (I paid extra to have the whole car painted)... when the policy renewal came up they dropped me.

In short, the airbags did nothing here except make the situation worse. I was aware of what was happening the entire time, no resulting injuries.

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After the crash vs. when the car was delivered from the body shop.
 
I should of mentioned earlier that 2 of the 3 wrecks I’ve been in the car didn’t have airbags so they had no way to deploy. When we hit a dog with our 2004 Camry on the way back from vacation the airbag didn’t deploy surprisingly, it was a loud impact at 55mph unfortunately the dog didn’t make it, he ran right out in front of us. The car looks like crap put together with aftermarket stuff the insurance said since it was our fault they would not pay for OEM parts. I’m honestly surprised they didn’t deploy it bent up the hood, smashed in the front and everything.
 
Funny enough, the one I've actually been around going off in a car was with me driving and no passenger. For whatever reason, the passenger bag popped but not the driver(and no, there was nothing sitting in the passenger seat). I was glad of that as it wasn't a terrible collision(the front end of the car looked nasty but it was driveable aside from a cracked t-stat housing). I was 100% unscathed without the bag aside from being a little sore the next day, and expect that the bag might have hurt me worse. The seatbelt tensioner did fire.

In any case, I knew the accident was coming, and basically went painfully deaf as I watched the windshield crash and spiderweb in front of me. I barely caught the bag inflating out of the corner of my eye, but it was mostly flat by the time I looked over at it a second or two later. My ears were ringing for the rest of the day. The broken windshield was not from the accident, but from the passenger bag. Those pack a whollop-I'm told more than the driver bag since they are larger to take up the greater space between the seat and dash vs. the steering wheel. The cracked windshield is supposedly normal for passenger bags also.

One of my college friends had grown up working in a body shop his dad owned. He brought airbags frequently and-under the supervision of a professor-we'd pop them on the front lawn of the college. Maybe it wasn't the smartest thing, but we'd run about 30ft of wire to them and they'd normally go off from a lantern battery. We would put them bag down and the bag+housing would fly probably 15-30 ft in the air. We did a fair few 90s GM driver bags which were reliable and repeatable. One of the most specatular ones was a passenger bag from a Kia. Granted from what I understand now bags are "smart" and the car can vary the deployment force as appropriate for the accident. We did a few side curtains also, but they were kind of boring. As best as we could tell, they're not pyrotechnic like the front ones, but seem to have a cylinder of gas that gets released to inflate them. They're slower than front ones, and also seem to stay inflated for a while.

Airbags save a lot of lives in serious collisions, but they're also nasty business when they do go off. They're definitely worthy of respect, and as much as I enjoy working on my own cars that's one thing I'd never do myself.

the smart bags have 2 ignition circuits, so 2 charges. If slow inflation is needed only 1 charge is set off, if it's a big crash both...
 
I was the first one to attend to a person in an overturned mini van. The airbag deployed and it had a very acrid smell. The lady was extremely disoriented and couldn't respond to my questions so I just stayed with her until the properly trained personnel arrived on scene. I could not tell if she was on drugs or mentally impaired or if the crash caused the disorientation. I'm sure the professionals have experience in that.

My wife hit a utility pole and the airbag deployed. She got a fat lip and bruise across her chest. Vehicle was totaled.
wasn't the bruise on the chest from the seatbelt?
 
Not to veer too far off-topic, but it is a good thing to have that you passed field sobriety in the police report. It is less arguing the other insurance company can do when it comes time to pay your bills. If you're both under the influence it becomes an outright mess, whereas if its just the other idiot, then they usually don't question much and pay a lot easier.
It should be standard practice in any accident were police are involved. It works in your favour if you didn't drink. Drug testing too, I would add.
 
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