Airbags and Crashes

[AtaraR]

Hi all. 

Sadly had my pride and joy was T-boned at a round about yesterday :( 

Other driver clearly wasn't paying attention, hit roundabout far too fast and saw me at the last minute, attempted to brake but was too late by then and found me... id estimate he was doing 40km/h before slamming brakes on at entry to roundabout knocking a bit of speed of him but not much before landing in my passenger side doors. Id approx my speed to be 35km/h or slightly less. 

Im ok. Bit sore from being thrown around by impact and shaken from whole incident but thankful my baby girl wasnt in the car. 

Other car was a hilux with bullbar. 

My question is, looking at pics attached, do you believe my side airbags should have gone off? 

I believe he hit as low on my car as he did due to the car nose diving from him hitting brakes so hard otherwise would have been higher. Im lucky enough to have had a dash cam in my car to capture it and cops behind me to witness but still leaves me scratching my head wondering what it takes for the airbags to engage. 

The internals of the doors are still straight. Front door opens, back door doesnt as door has actually been moved off hinges and shoved into back quarter panel. 

Look forward to reading replies. 

[campbeam]

 

4 minutes ago, AtaraR said:

My question is, looking at pics attached, do you believe my side airbags should have gone off? 

Essentially a low speed collision. Interesting that there is no broken window glass.

I understand that airbags will deploy at 40+kph more so for frontal collisions.

Your experience is why I am always a bit wary around SUV drivers and roundabouts.

[AtaraR]

Yeh i agree its weird that windows didnt smash... the internal door trims are untouched also so damage has stopped just sly of internals thankfully and pillar seems straight but hard to be sure until doors are pulled off.. i read somewhere that airbag sensor is in pillar so perhaps thats why? 

Yeh i hate all people and round abouts lol 

3 hours ago, campbeam said:

 

Essentially a low speed collision. Interesting that there is no broken window glass.

I understand that airbags will deploy at 40+kph more so for frontal collisions.

Your experience is why I am always a bit wary around SUV drivers and roundabouts.

 

[campbeam]

Located this URL for the sensor location.

http://www.tcamanual.com/side_air_bag_sensor_assy_rh-875.html

Just guessing but quite possibly if the passenger seat was unoccupied then this may have an affect upon the airbag deployment.

[07Prodigy]

There are lots of different factors to consider before the computer decides that airbag deployment is necessary.

there are sensors around the outside of the car (as mentioned above)

there is usually at least one control unit

there is also a control into of sorts that is usually mounted under the Center consol that (long story short) measures the force at which the car is hit.

so basically it's measuring direction of impact, force of impact, estimates result of impact, a few other tings, then determines which airbags to deploy and at what rate to deploy them. (If the car is fitted with other SRS devices then it does the same for these too.

for example 

two vehicles traveling at lower speeds

vehicle A T bones vehicle B square on (so a perfect T bone)

Vehicle B detects a side impact at (made up number) 0.6G but requires (another made up number) 0.75G before deploying the side curtain airbags or side airbags.

Vevicle A detects a frontal impact at (again made up number) 0.6G but again requires (another made up number) 0.8G to deploy front air bags or knee airbags.

 

A large part of the energy is absorb by he Crumple zones so the speed from the point of contact to the point the car registers the impact are actually to different values.

 

does this help at all?

also will you be buying another Camry?