Since air bags inflate with considerable speed and force, you can be injured by an air bag,
especially if you are unbelted, out of position or too close to a deploying air bag. With
respect to front air bags, the proper seating position is as far away as possible from the
air bag (consistent with proper operation of vehicle controls for the driver) and with the
occupant’s back against the seat backrest, which should be in a nearly upright position.
With respect to door mounted side air bags, occupants should avoid leaning against the
vehicle’s door, and should never allow children to do so. Please see operator’s manual
and labels in the vehicle for further information about children and air bags and use of
child restraints.
Criteria for an ETD / air bag deployment.
In order to determine whether to deploy, an electronic control unit evaluates the intensity,
duration and direction of the vehicle deceleration or acceleration during the very earliest
phase of the collision. The deployment thresholds are variable and are adapted in
response to the intensity of the vehicle acceleration or deceleration rate sensed early in
the collision. To be able to protect occupants who begin moving during the early portion
of a crash sequence, the system’s determination whether to deploy an ETD(s) and / or air
bag(s) must be anticipatory since deployment has to happen very early in the collision.
Vehicle deceleration or acceleration
rate and impact force direction are
determined based on the force
distribution, the collision angle, the
deformation characteristics of the
vehicle and the state, mass and
deformability of the object with which
the vehicle collides.
Vehicle damage is neither a determinative factor for an ETD / air bag deployment nor an
indication that an ETD / air bag should have been deployed. This means that even if a
vehicle appears severely damaged in an accident, an ETD / air bag deployment threshold
is not necessarily met. An impact may be of a type that results in substantial damage to
the vehicle but does not involve stiff structural parts, thus resulting in a deceleration rate
below the system deployment threshold. Conversely, air bags can deploy even if the
vehicle damage in an accident is relatively slight. Thus, a lower speed collision involving
relatively stiff vehicle structures may reach the deceleration threshold for deploying an
ETD / air bag. Furthermore, the vehicle speed at the start of the collision and the injuries
suffered during a collision do not indicate whether an air bag should have deployed, since
the severity of the load to and physical injuries experienced by occupants often depend
on the type of collision, the deformation characteristics of the object involved in the
collision, and the overall severity of the collision.
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