EnglishPaul

From time to time I get a bit carried away listening to the radio and I tap and bang the steering wheel (which contains an airbag). Then one day it occurred to me that I might set the thing off!
So I got to wondering just how many airbag misfires happen. Personally I think the windscreen shattering into your face, and an airbag blowing would be the 2 worst things to happen when driving; far worse than a wheel falling off.

A quick google search suggested that airbags don't misfire (or nobody talks about it). So have you ever heard of one?

ashumann12

The only thing close (That I have herd of) is an active cell phone close to the steering wheel setting of the eletronic charge thus deploying the air bag, but this could be an urban myth. Just tapping on it should not do a thing because a lot of models require you to push a rather large section of the wheel (including airbag) to activate the horn.

soppy1291

the airbag is activated via sensors in the front, side, and rear of the car, not on the steering wheel itself. does it make sense to have an airbag go off AFTER your face hits the wheel? no, so the sensors are all around the car. hitting the wheel shouldn't set it off.

carsey

Airbags dont deploy in a rear end collision.

soppy1291

if you get rearended at high enough speed, your head will bounce off the seat and go tword the steering wheel, they will deploy in most cars.

1 g0t 0wn3d

They deployed when we were rearended at 65mph while we were stoped

EnglishPaul

Was everyone o.k.? Thats one hell of an inpact.

@everyone: My concern was less about tapping the steering wheel, that was just what triggered my train of thought.
My surprise is that I haven't heard of any misfires. That must make the air bag the most reliable thing on a car!
In general there are only a few things I would fear when driving: having the windscreen shatter on the motorway; having the airbrakes on a truck fail on a motorway (the design is 'fail safe' so that any problems cause the breaks to deploy- not something you want while driving at speed!); and having an air bag explode in my face for no reason with no warning.

1 g0t 0wn3d

Only my dad was in the card he had very slight whiplash (the totaled car is behind me and has the back of it caved in to the back tire, and the front was alittle crushed from the car infront

The worst part the guy has no insurence and lives in a trailer, the person we rear ended had no insurence ethe as they were and illegal imigrant and had not licence

carsey

I seem to find a lot of facts on google that they dont deploy as the sensors are in the front of the car and are designed to measure deceleration.

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/inju...s03/page3.html

and the full article:

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/inju.../airbags1.html

bingbang

I heard a story once that a mechanic in one of those massive car finance, car showrooms was carrying out a regular inspection on a car and forgot to turn the airbag off (or however you want to put it) and when he removed the steering wheel the airbag deployed, he was still holding on to the wheel so it forced his arms away from him, twisted them and he broke both his arms.

not sure how true it is ..

soppy1291

Makes sense to me that it would at least hyper-extend his arms or do some type of damage. According to Newton's Laws, :Every action has an equal but opposite reaction". Therefore his arms would be damaged, considering the speed at which airbags deploy.

EnglishPaul

...Although the air bag design would have been for people holding on to the steering wheel at the time of the crash!

Under normal deployment the injuries I have heard of are friction burns to the arms, major injury to small children, and grazes to the eyes (because it deploys faster than you can blink).

carsey

I remember when Jeremy clarkson was talking about it. he said he expected it to be like a soft pillow but it was actually like someone punching you in the face.

soppy1291

Yes, they are designed for someone holding onto it but usually the opposite reaction is absorbed by the steering column... If the column wasn't there (as in the case of the mechanic taking it off) it would cause damage.