On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 08:29:13PM -0400, eactiv...@aol.com wrote: > > ============ > I'm glad he is okay. You'd think because the car flipped, the airbags would > have deployed. Odd.
Not at all, that's not the sort of acceleration that airbags protect against. Airbags protect you when you drive into a brick wall. Unless, of course, you're short. If you're under 5'2" or something, then an airbag deploying is as likely to break your neck as it is to save your life. There is also the detail that if you were driving down a mountain road, and you were to hit a deer, and it were to cause the airbag to deploy, you would no longer be able to steer your car and could end up driving off a cliff because of the airbag deploying. If this were to happen, the car company would be under a fair amount of financial liability, so they want to make sure that airbags don't deploy unless they are really needed. In short, the car has to hit something very hard in order for the airbags to deploy. As to the cars with all of the side airbags, I've heard that having them deploy can do things like rupturing your eardrums. You do know that you are not supposed to drive with your thumb wrapped around the steering wheel if you have airbags? If you hit something and the airbag deploys, and your thumb is "inside the steering wheel", the airbag exploding and throwing your arms to the side, will likely break both of your thumbs. If your hands are at the top of the steering wheel and the airbag deploys, it'll slam your arm and hand into your face. Want to know what it's like to be punched in the face by Jackie Chan? > > Makes me feel less unprotected by my airbags now. Don't worry, on average they are supposed to protect more people than they harm, and it's a lot easier than putting effort into improving one's driving. -- The fastest way to get your question answered on the net is to post the wrong answer. Larry Colen l...@red4est.com http://www.red4est.com/lrc -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
