Ever blow out an airbag ?

[Toadspit]

 Just wanted to pose the question and honestly it never crossed my mind until about 3 weeks ago. Driver turned in front of me and totaled out my 95 legacy outback. Driver side bag held up pretty good but the burns on my hand from the airbag vents hurt really bad. Even had skin rolling off my knuckles. Anyhow, Thoughts ? comments ? 

[Txakura]

Oh that sucks, no I haven't. My daughter was injured by hers though. But I have to say it was a lot better than the alternative in her case. Glad you're okay.

[Rooster2]

Sorry to hear about your burns, but hope the air bag minimized potential internal injuries. I have never encountered a blown air bag, but was involved in an accident, where driver of a Honda, had her air bag go off in her face from the driver's seat. She had facial bruises, but nothing more. Not surprised to hear about your burns, an explosive charge deploys the air bag, the heat from that explosion has to go somewhere. I am surprised the vent design would spray gas in the direction of your hands.

[Fairtax4me]

If your hand is on the bottom of the wheel when the airbag goes off, you're gonna get burned and skinned.

 

Manufacturers don't really make a point to inform people of where they should place their hands in order to minimize injury from airbags.

 

My aunt used to be an EMT and she said she constantly saw hand face and arm injuries from airbags.

Broken knuckles, broken fingers, sprained or broken wrists. Black eyes, broken noses, you get the idea.

Pretty much all of them were because of incorrect hand placement on the wheel, or sitting too close to the airbag.

 

When a collision occurs the airbag inflation process only takes about 100 milliseconds. The sensors that ignite the charge are tripped within 10-15 ms, and the igniter module burns and ignites the main charge in the airbag which takes another 10-15 ms. 30-40 ms after impact the bag begins to inflate, and is fully inflated in about 60ms.

The bag remains fully inflated for about 150ms as the rest of the inflator gasses burn and are exhausted through the vents in the back of the bag. Then the bag begins to deflate.

 

The further away from the airbag you sit, the better off you are. Ideally you don't want to hit the airbag while its still inflating, because thats when its going to punch you the hardest. Sitting further away from the bag lengthens the amount of time between the initial deployment and when you hit the bag. Just a few inches can make the difference between hitting the bag when it has just reached full inlation, or hitting it in the time period between full inflation and when it begins to deflate.

A deflating airbag doesn't do much good for absorbing impact, but if you haven't hit the bag by the time it begins to deflate you're probably not going to.

Airbags have been refined quite a bit in newer cars. They have multiple stages now, that allow the bag to have three different inflation speeds depending on the severity of the impact. They've also reshaped the bags to help avoid burns and hand injuries from the bag.

 

You're probably going to end up with friction burns on your arms or hands either way, and if you wear glasses they'll probably leave some marks, but still better than hitting the steering wheel.

Edited April 11, 2014 by Fairtax4me

[TheWanderer]

I've blown one.  Never. Again. lol

 

2000 Hyundai Elantra wagon.  At 30 mph.  Car didn't survive, but the Lincoln Navigator that it hit walked away without a scratch and the 2 older ladies in it had no idea what happened lol.

[Toadspit]

Well thanks to everyone that chimed in. I had my hands at 9 and 3 . I did make it out a lot better than i would have without airbags and i am a pretty tall person so sitting too close to the airbag I don't even think is possible .    anyhow just wanted to see what a few of you thought. Thanks