Accident

[exalted_one]

A few days ago a cobalt cut my girlfreind off while she was going 40. The car is pretty messed up and she is bruised up but the part that worries us is the airbags did not deploy. Everyone that looked at the car (tow truck company/insurance adjusters/cop) all said that they should have been deployed. Is there anything she can do legally bc the aibags did not deploy? Ill get some pics up tonight or tommerow.

[evilmonkeyMSP]

sweet, first the proteges, now the 3's....nice

[Butlerg]

o rly??? My protege5 bags never deployed at 40 into a wall.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c336/surf96712/th_DSC_0004-1.jpg (http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c336/surf96712/DSC_0004-1.jpg)

[CX-7owner]

They don't have to deploy, the pretensioner's usually kick in and the sensors sense that the bags don't have a need to deploy, I was in a Sentra going 50 MPH and SMASHED in the back of a corolla, No air bag deployment, and I don't think they would have made much of a difference.

[robin2660]

Ah, yes but, if the driver or passenger impacted the steering wheel or dash ....


Robin

[Rotary_Powered]

Even if she was going that fast, there probably wasn't a great enough velocity difference between the vehicles to transfer enough energy on impact.

[exalted_one]

well there was a good bit of force cause it pushed the other car about 7 ft and over a curb. the problem is she fractured her kneecap on the dash. and has bad swelling in her abdamon (sp?) from the seat belt.

[CX-7owner]

Yeah, thats the damn pretensioner, when I was in that other accident my chest hurt for weeks.

[CX-7owner]

But we need PIXXXX and Interior pix to see the intrusion to the passenger cell.

[niky]

IMHO, good seatbelts and pre-tensioners > airbags.

She got cut off? Then it was a glancing frontal blow? According to our owner's manuals, the frontal airbags won't go off unless it's a head-on impact, and even then, the initial acceleration has to be very abrupt and has to hit both the left and right sensors with the same amount of force to trigger the front airbags.

I've seen/been in lots of accidents, and I've only seen one or two where the airbags actually deployed. That's why most manufacturers put airbag warnings and limitiations in their owner's manual. Even if you decide to sue, they'll just point at the relevant clause in the manual and say: "We told you so..."

That is, unless there's a side-impact airbag that's supposed to have gone off?

[I vtec, do you?]

Is there anything she can do legally bc the aibags did not deploy?

This is what's wrong with America.. everyone is just a lazy ass out to sue for anything they can. Your gf is bruised, but OK, be thankful for that instead of looking for ways to make money off of something.

Airbags only deploy if the severity of the crash is enough. You said yourself she is bruised, but she isn't dead, right? So it sounds like the system is working.. yeah?

[Ryz]

I had a steering wheel break off and the airbag blow into my lap. I couldn't sue there's nothing that's gonna come of yours.

[fourthmeal]

This is what's wrong with America.. everyone is just a lazy ass out to sue for anything they can. Your gf is bruised, but OK, be thankful for that instead of looking for ways to make money off of something.

Airbags only deploy if the severity of the crash is enough. You said yourself she is bruised, but she isn't dead, right? So it sounds like the system is working.. yeah?


Wrong! What is wrong with America is that nobody believes in accountability. If this happened in other countries, then the wrongdoer would take responsibility for it, and cover the damages and injuries. A fractured ANYTHING is cause for compensation. My wife was hit head-on, and luckily walked away with no more then bruises, nightmares, and some serious fear of it happening again. We were compensated fairly.

In your case, with someone clearly at fault and with injuries, you need to be compensated. And damn it, make sure you are compensated fairly. This is no time to sue for millions, but you should be able to settle for a very fair amount. Personally, I'd rather not bust my knee up then get paid for it. The knees are something that, once hit, seem to never be the same again.

Good luck to you,

[CX-7owner]

what kind of car?

[I vtec, do you?]

Wrong! What is wrong with America is that nobody believes in accountability. If this happened in other countries, then the wrongdoer would take responsibility for it, and cover the damages and injuries. A fractured ANYTHING is cause for compensation. My wife was hit head-on, and luckily walked away with no more then bruises, nightmares, and some serious fear of it happening again. We were compensated fairly.

In your case, with someone clearly at fault and with injuries, you need to be compensated. And damn it, make sure you are compensated fairly. This is no time to sue for millions, but you should be able to settle for a very fair amount. Personally, I'd rather not bust my knee up then get paid for it. The knees are something that, once hit, seem to never be the same again.


Did you even read what the OP said? He wants to sue MAZDA because the airbags didn't deploy. I see how you could get away with a lawsuit against the other driver - they were driving unsafely and someone was hurt, compensation there would be right.

However, he wants to sue because airbags didn't deploy. And sorry to say, that's the most dipshitty thing I've ever heard. He said the car was messed up badly and his gf got a bit bruised up. Be thankful for that.. I'm not sure why you're complaining the airbags didn't go off. There was clearly no need for them. Have you ever had an airbag deploy? I did once, in my old taurus where it just had front air-bags - left a HUGE bruise on my chest along with massive burns. I can't beleive you're (the op) complaining about bruising and wanting legal action taken.

[exalted_one]

This is what's wrong with America.. everyone is just a lazy ass out to sue for anything they can. Your gf is bruised, but OK, be thankful for that instead of looking for ways to make money off of something.

Airbags only deploy if the severity of the crash is enough. You said yourself she is bruised, but she isn't dead, right? So it sounds like the system is working.. yeah?

I never said i was going to sue to get rich you are putting words in my mouth.
If the car is not a total Mazda should have to fix the problem. Im not expecting to get rich neither is she, but the reason for having a safety system in the car is for it to work, that could have been 3grand saved off the sticker if it is useless. Im just going by what was told to me by 3 people who see accidents all the time... What do they know anyways? (fu)

[exalted_one]

Good luck to you,

Thanks man i may need it because her insurance filed a claim against her. That may just be standard procedure though. Also how long does it normally take for neck and back pains to go away after accident?

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa62/03protege/wreck.jpg

[knowledge007]

Could be never. Soft tissue injuries are hard to distinguish. Please have her get checked out.

[exalted_one]

Did you even read what the OP said? He wants to sue MAZDA because the airbags didn't deploy. I see how you could get away with a lawsuit against the other driver - they were driving unsafely and someone was hurt, compensation there would be right.


I was just considering my options due to the fact I refuse to let her get screwed on someone elses account. Stop being a tool and you might understand, and yes ive been in an accident where an airbag deployed (older 96' camry with the "unsafe airbags") I beileve I was severly less injured beacuse of it and I wrote Toyota a thank you letter afterwards.

[exalted_one]

Could be never. Soft tissue injuries are hard to distinguish. Please have her get checked out.

She is getting X-rays and I think they said an MRI soon. Yeah the knee sucks but that is the part I am least worried about.

[mckraut]

I never said i was going to sue to get rich you are putting words in my mouth.
If the car is not a total Mazda should have to fix the problem. Im not expecting to get rich neither is she, but the reason for having a safety system in the car is for it to work, that could have been 3grand saved off the sticker if it is useless. Im just going by what was told to me by 3 people who see accidents all the time... What do they know anyways? (fu)

Agreed. Thank god your girlfriend is alright and everything but the fact is she paid for a piece of equipment which should have worked and it did not work when the time called for it. She should receive some sort of compensation from Mazda over this.

[CX-7owner]

If the pretensioner's held her back the airbags would have done nothing but add to the COR, and lower car value, the Airbags would have done nothing but add to facial burns, etc.. And it seems as though the problems caused would not have been covered by the Airbag, like the knees. If she went through the windshield, then OK they should have been deployed, or if her seatbelt was not on, they DEFINITELY would have. But in this case they would not have done much. If they deployed after, then you would have something but in this case they probably would not have done much but to have you say the Airbags saved her life.

[ecniemann]

Thanks man i may need it because her insurance filed a claim against her. That may just be standard procedure though. Also how long does it normally take for neck and back pains to go away after accident?

http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa62/03protege/wreck.jpg

First rule out any serious pathology such as vertebral fracture (x-ray), SCI (spinal cord injury), or TBI (traumatic brain injury) which both would be fairly obvious anyway. This should be on your PCP's end, which it seems like is being taken care of (ie. x-ray and MRI). If there is nothing wrong there, most likely best bet is PT for soft-tissue/joint injury which can lead to post traumatic whiplash syndrome or LBP (low back pain) if not treated acutely. It can be treated later, but is much more difficult to treat in later stages due to compensatory movement patterns, fear, avoidance, and stiffness that results after prolonged amounts of time without Tx. I would say with early intervention, neck and back pain should resolve mostly within 2 months, although everyone is different based on anatomy of the body and nature of the MVA. Her knee should be fine without Tx as long as no fracture, probably just bruised, but please take all of this with a grain of salt as I have not seen her and do not know the extent of injury. But as another poster stated, get her checked out and exercise your right to medical resources that the other driver's insurance should be paying for. Emotional trauma will just take time. Good luck and feel free to PM me any additional questions once you find out more.

[SuperStretch18]

well there was a good bit of force cause it pushed the other car about 7 ft and over a curb. the problem is she fractured her kneecap on the dash. and has bad swelling in her abdamon (sp?) from the seat belt.

It sounds like a lot of the force was exerted on the other vehicle. Honestly, the airbag only keeps you from bashing your face on the dash/steering wheel. If she didn't hit her face or head, she is probably better off that the airbag did not deploy. An airbag will not help leg or abdominal injuries.

As everyone said though; hope she is OK and everything works out. Don't worry too much about the insurance thing; that will work itself out. Good Luck!

[ecniemann]

well there was a good bit of force cause it pushed the other car about 7 ft and over a curb. the problem is she fractured her kneecap on the dash. and has bad swelling in her abdamon (sp?) from the seat belt.

Oops... missed that when I was skimming through and replied earlier. Definately will require therapy for that, and it may take close to 1 year before that knee "feels normal" again. Again some people may take less time, others more.

[I vtec, do you?]

I never said i was going to sue to get rich you are putting words in my mouth.
If the car is not a total Mazda should have to fix the problem. Im not expecting to get rich neither is she, but the reason for having a safety system in the car is for it to work, that could have been 3grand saved off the sticker if it is useless. Im just going by what was told to me by 3 people who see accidents all the time... What do they know anyways? (fu)

Wow. Read what this guy wrote - apparently he's the only one (that has said anything in here) with some common sense.


It sounds like a lot of the force was exerted on the other vehicle. Honestly, the airbag only keeps you from bashing your face on the dash/steering wheel. If she didn't hit her face or head, she is probably better off that the airbag did not deploy. An airbag will not help leg or abdominal injuries.


Air bags do NOT go off in every accident. In fact, they rarely go off, because a seat-belt can (a lot of the time) prevent the injuries from happening. Ok, your gf got bruised up. But did any part of her body get impaled by the dash, or any part of the structure of the vehicle hat I donno.. cracked her head open?

I read ALL the time of people getting into nasty accidents in the new civics and no airbags going off, and guess what? They all live - there's a reason why they don't go off. They hurt like fucking hell, and they're expensive to replace. It only goes off when NECESSARY, obviously in your gf's case it wasn't because not only did they NOT go off, but she's still alive with minor injuries.

And I'm not putting words in your mouth - you said you want to take legal action against the car company. How is the car company at fault? She got into the accident, there was nothing mazda (I'm assuming it's a mazda) did that caused the accident, and the car DID save her from dieing, yeah? So I fail to see what your case is. If she had died/suffered a heavy injury, then yes, you would have a case. But apparently you're just like all those other lazy people out there who'd rather jump on a lawsuit at the chance when they have absolutely no case.

[CX-7owner]

I kinda said the same thing. The Airbags had no use to be deployed.

[Texaco]

IMHO, good seatbelts and pre-tensioners > airbags.

She got cut off? Then it was a glancing frontal blow? According to our owner's manuals, the frontal airbags won't go off unless it's a head-on impact, and even then, the initial acceleration has to be very abrupt and has to hit both the left and right sensors with the same amount of force to trigger the front airbags.

I've seen/been in lots of accidents, and I've only seen one or two where the airbags actually deployed. That's why most manufacturers put airbag warnings and limitiations in their owner's manual. Even if you decide to sue, they'll just point at the relevant clause in the manual and say: "We told you so..."

That is, unless there's a side-impact airbag that's supposed to have gone off?

Agree. The owners manual describes air bag activation in detail and your system was more than likely working properly. The type of crash however did not exceed the threshold for activation. There are many variables involved, but here are a few situations where the air bag will NOT deploy:

Frontal impact outside about a 30 degree range from head-on to the vehicle.

Impacts involving trees or poles cause severe cosmetic damage but may not have enough stopping force to activate the air bag.

Frontal offset impact to the vehicle may not provide the stopping force necessary for air bag deployment.

Hitting a solid wall straight on at less than 14 miles per hour.

Hope all ends up well for your girfriend.

[niky]

Yup... I've been in at least two head-ons... and neither deployed the airbag.

My Sentra got creamed by a truck once, no airbag. Some idiot drove backwards into our 626, straight on. No airbag. My bro drove it into a tree, no airbag.

One guy on our local board wanted to sue Mazda over airbag non-deployment because of bruising when they hit a solid barrier edge-on. That's when we looked into the Mazda3 owner's manual, and it's very explicit on the types of impact that will set off the frontal bags.

Only time someone I know set off their airbags is by a freak of luck. His Proty skidded sideways on a bridge and veered into the side barrier head on. The velocity he was carrying was not enough to necessitate airbags (he had some cosmetic damage, but the impact didn't total the car), but he hit the wall at exactly the right angle to trip both left and right sensors at the same time, and poof... face-full of airbags without massive deceleration, some burns and bruising... and they didn't hit hard enough to get bruised on the belts.

Anyway, airbags are only a supplementary safety system. There's a reason race cars don't come with them... they don't need them. Proper seatbelt use and crash structure are the key. Airbags are designed merely to prevent a certain percentage of injuries in case the seatbelts fail or the occupants are not properly restrained or are sitting too close to the dash. They're design to not go off if the crash structure absorbs a certain percentage of the impact force, or if the impact force is not directed straight backwards towards the occupant, simply because the designers trust the seatbelts to be sufficient for this kind of impact.

Number one rule is to buckle up, sit upright and at the proper distance from the wheel/dash (to prevent the airbag from killing you when it goes off), and drive safe.

Since they've already put the warning in the manual, (like most manufacturers do), Mazda has their asses covered. You could take it to court, but that might just be a waste of money. Better to go after the other guy and to straighten things out with insurance.

[exalted_one]

thank you everyone for your concern. I'm trying to get her to email the pictures to me. And once again im not planning on taking Mazda to court, i was mainly seeing if the airbag system was defective(like i said earlier i was told by three people that they should have deployed). Thank you everyone for your help.

[ademan]

thank you everyone for your concern. I'm trying to get her to email the pictures to me. And once again im not planning on taking Mazda to court, i was mainly seeing if the airbag system was defective(like i said earlier i was told by three people that they should have deployed). Thank you everyone for your help.

the airbag wasnt defective, the new generation airbag pack a lot of forces, if that airbag deploy, your girlfriend will probably be in the hospital with more damaged than she has and possible broken jaw,face etc. thats why they didnt go off, unless there is a head on frontal collision, they the airbag wont go off, the airbag is there to supplement the seatbelt, was she wearing seat belt.?.
all new cars has that feature due to the cost of airbag replacement and amount of vehicle being total loss due to the airbag deployment at low/less fatality accident

[3+5]

My wife and I got clobbered in our 06 Mazda 5 by an 18 year old paying no attention to us, looking right while exiting left from a flashing red intersection, hit us at 90 degrees on the front right corner of the car. We were probably going at 35 mph when the cars met. The impact (probably coupled with my trying to evade collision to the left) knocked us over the median and blew the right front and rear tires. As we launched, the median took care of the left front, with no steering or braking grip, we hit the curb in the oncoming lane hard enough to break it. $11k in damage, no airbags deployed and we both hopped out of the car immediately, perfectly ok. Damn good thing they didn't deploy IMHO. Don't sweat the airbag thing if she's ok. Belts hurt like hell when they save you from more serious and certain harm. Be glad the bags didn't nail her too. I hope she recovers quickly and insurance takes care of her and the car.

[HAVOC]

exalted_one,
Where did she hit the other car?
I was in a similar accident years ago and the insurance company said because I hit her between her doors it was 50/50 fault, that is maybe why the other company is suing. The good news is making a left and getting into an accident is never a good thing, but they will make it difficult to pay as little as possible.