Nissan Juke airbag non-deployment

[woodypup59]

My son was a passenger in a 22 plate Juke the other day when they side-swiped on the motorway.

The car was spun into the central reservation and then spun backwards onto lane 1 (no hard shoulder here) where it was hit by an HGV on the passenger side/front corner.

Fortunately only slightly injuries to the driver.

Would you expect air-bags deploy ? I would.

[mmm-five]

Depends on the severity of the impacts.

Did the seatbelt pre-tensioners fire?

Would airbag deployment have reduced the minor injuries further, or possibly created more?

[The test driver]

mmm-five said:

Depends on the severity of the impacts.

Is the correct answer, for an airbag to deploy it has to meet a set of parameters. In your son's case the accident doesn't sound like those parameters were met so no deployment occurred.

[MitchT]

In an ideal world the airbags should only deploy when the injuries they may cause are less severe than the ones which they're preventing. My aunt was left with tinitus in her left ear after a side airbag deployed when the car in which she was a passanger was hit from the side by an SUV which failed to give way at a junction. In her case it may have been the lesser of two evils.

That said, I've read threads on here by people whose airbags deployed after very minor impacts which wouldn't have caused any injury at all, leaving them with a huge repair bill. In one thread, which was posted a long time ago, the OP's airbags deployed in a Mini when he bumped the edge of the kerb when turning off the road. His insurance wouldn't pay out as there was no accident as such and BMW/Mini refused to take any responsibility for the airbags being far too sensitive, so the OP was out of pocket by a significant amount of money.

If everyone was able to walk away unscathed or with very minor injuries without the airbags deploying then it sounds like the car performed correctly in the circumstances.

Edited by MitchT on Friday 19th January 15:49

[Alex_225]

Very dependent on the accident itself and if the airbags needed to go off.

My other half was in her old Merc ML and was hit in the back by an HGV, the boot area of the car was 9-12" shorter and the car was totalled. None of the airbags deployed. In my head I'd assume airbags would have just gone off but I guess the conditions for them to deploy weren't there. Car did a great job of protecting the people in it none the less.

[GroundEffect]

MitchT said:

In an ideal world the airbags should only deploy when the injuries they may cause are less severe than the ones which they're preventing. My aunt was left with tinitus in her left ear after a side airbag deployed when the car in which she was a passanger was hit from the side by an SUV which failed to give way at a junction. In her case it may have been the lesser of two evils.

That said, I've read threads on here by people whose airbags deployed after very minor impacts which wouldn't have caused any injury at all, leaving them with a huge repair bill. In one thread, which was posted a long time ago, the OP's airbags deployed in a Mini when he bumped the edge of the kerb when turning off the road. His insurance wouldn't pay out as there was no accident as such and BMW/Mini refused to take any responsibility for the airbags being far too sensitive, so the OP was out of pocket by a significant amount of money.

If everyone was able to walk away unscathed or with very minor injuries without the airbags deploying then it sounds like the car performed correctly in the circumstances.

Edited by MitchT on Friday 19th January 15:49

Agreed. Airbags should only deploy when they need to. And the OEMs spend a lot of time characterising this.

[Freakuk]

As above all depends on the impacts, speeds etc.

Would you want one going off from a slight nudge?