Why didn’t the air bags go off ?

wow, sorry to hear it! i'm glad no one is in the hospital, and hope you recover quickly!

no idea on the bags, how fast were you going?

 

that is very surprising. i would have thought so too. i don't even know who you could ask, nhtsa?
body shop might have an idea, insurance co should be very interested.

 

The air bag computer can probably be read for the collision g forces, etc. I don't know what its threshold is for deploying the bags.

 

Wow! I'm very sorry to hear this. LA and Orange Counties are a very unsafe place to drive. My old Corolla was hit and totaled by a hit-and-run driver a couple of years ago. I saw another silver Prius Prime involved in a major collision in Westminster last week.

How did this happen? Did they run a red light? I find that a good way to stay safe in our area is to drive slow and constantly monitor surroundings, especially the intersections. The Blue Magnetism also adds visibility over neutral colors such as silver and gray. I am glad that everyone is OK. It sounds like the g-forces were not very high because the cars kept moving and spinning after the collision. You are not always this lucky because sometimes you have a head-on collision or are sent colliding with a stationary object. You don't want the air bags to be deployed if the g-forces are small because the airbags themselves also cause injury. I wouldn't bother having that car fixed. Let the insurance company reimburse you, and get a brand-new one.

 

Sorry to hear about the wreck, hope you feel better soon. As it happens I'm visiting L.A. and witnessed an intersection crash in Van Nuys a few hours ago. People are driving weird lately.

I can only speculate that enough of the impact energy went into spinning your car vs. a shock acceleration in any one direction, which is what generally fires the airbags.

Clearly substantial damage but from the one photo I (again) speculate that this won't be a total loss.

 

Sorry to see your aftermath pic. Glad to hear you and others are not seriously hurt. The other car definitely looks badly damaged beyond repair. My guess is your PP may be repairable, but insurance is likely to write it off as totaled. Let us know how the insurance company decides. As for the side airbag, was there a passenger in your vehicle? Maybe it deploys only if the car detects a passenger on the front seat since the impact was from the passenger side?

 

From the level of damage to the side of your car, I'd have guessed a significantly lower speed.

The striking car is considerably less visible in this image, but even there, I'd guess somewhat slower than that.

The airbag controllers do have g-force and direction and possibly other criteria for firing, and do not fire at least some of the bags when no human is present in their particular zone.

 

Today's airbags are very smart and VERY expensive. It appears your impact was a glancing blow to the corner of the car. Usually, a direct blow to the middle of the car will trigger the airbags. If the bags were triggered the repair would be several thousand dollars more. If no one got hurt, it's safe to say they worked perfectly.

 

people always say things like
"wow the other car most be junk, look at all the damage !"
when the reality is one of them received a different type of energy removal.... his car slid across the side of yours... yours had a larger contact area so it looks like less severe damage whereas his was all concentrated on the front clip.... the front clip is all plastic and meant to deform and absorb energy. looks like it did it's job.

good thing is wasn't head on at that speed, you're going to feel it for a while.

what are you buying next to replace it ?

 

Seat belt in use.......or not ?

 

Glad you're Ok.
It's gonna get a little worse before it gets better, but if you walked away it should get all the way better.

Make sure you get checked out for any lingering injury.

Your car looks repairable, but you're going to be dealing with "diminished value" if you're the type that regularly buys new cars....something that you might have to demand from whichever insurance company will be writing the checks.....BUT....that's all "stuff."

The main thing is that all of the PEEPS are OK.
Those are harder to fix.

Good Luck!
Keep us posted.

 

Can't count how many times people have run red lights while I'm waiting to turn left. I only turn now when I'm sure the oncoming traffic has stopped.

 

There is no substitute for good defensive driving skills / habits.

 

Passenger must wear seat belt to activate air bags in Prius

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
I think that caused the air bags not to pop