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Registered
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Dahlonega , Georgia
Posts: 14,585
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air bag/horn/crash question
I was thinking the other day about a crash scenario that I haven't seen discussed on this forum. If you are driving a car with an air bag and you see an accident playing out in front of you one of the things you might do is lay on the horn while braking. In this scenario if you hit the vehicle the air bag deploys but your hand is still on the horn. Does that mean hand/fingers/wrist/forearm are now possibly broken/shattered ? I hope to never test this scenario but was curious what others think.
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04-28-2013, 12:59 PM
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Gary H 1978 911 SC
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Fort Worth Texas
Posts: 1,306
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Possibly, I set off a few airbags in a field and set a spare tire on them and it threw the tire 25 feet in the air. I T-boned a car and I knew to keep my arms clear of the center point of the airbag.
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Gary H 1978 911 SC |
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04-28-2013, 01:45 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: NW Ohio
Posts: 9,733
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Whatever is touching or close to that airbag deployment area will get forcibly moved out of the way in a big hurry. I would think fingers/hand/wrist/forearm are going to be badly bruised if not broken, and might break your nose if flung that way when it goes off.
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04-28-2013, 02:56 PM
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Registered
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Capistrano Beach, Ca.
Posts: 7,235
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Which brings up a question I have. Just how does the bag on the steering wheel deploy so the plastic cover is not shot back into the face/body of the driver? The comment of an air bag system able to pop a spare tire 25 feet into the air is scary. So how is the system designed so the bag comes out but the cover doesn't become a projectile? Don't want to hijack the thread but I think an answer to this may lead to an answer for the OP.
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L.J. Recovering Porsche-holic Gave up trying to stay clean Stabilized on a Pelican I.V. drip |
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04-28-2013, 03:10 PM
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The Unsettler
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Lantanna TX
Posts: 23,885
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There was a Mythbusters episode addressing a similar question, if you drove with your hands on the spokes resting your thumbs on the bag.
MythBusters Episode 87: Myth Evolution ossi, the fabric/material covering the airbag is designed to split open.
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04-28-2013, 03:15 PM
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Registered
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Nevada City, Ca
Posts: 2,210
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I was a witness to an accident where a women sitting very close to the steering wheel misread the light and drove into a guy turning left in front of her. BLAM went the airbag in her car and knocked her out cold.
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04-28-2013, 03:18 PM
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Gary H 1978 911 SC
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Fort Worth Texas
Posts: 1,306
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All air bag covers have a split seam the bag comes through or it will have hinge points so only the bag makes contact not the cover.
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Gary H 1978 911 SC |
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04-28-2013, 03:56 PM
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Did you get the memo?
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Wichita, KS
Posts: 32,319
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My little sister in law isn't very big, and drives close to the steering wheel. When she was in high school she hit a deer in a 1990s Ford Taurus, the airbag turned basically her entire torso black and blue for a few weeks. It was a minor impact, without an airbag she would have been fine. One of several reasons the early airbag systems scare me.
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04-28-2013, 06:49 PM
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