After Honda recalled over 300,000 of their vehicles thismonth due to airbag safety concerns, I started to wonder how an airbag is meantto work efficiently. Oxygen sensors, your power steering pump, and other mechanical parts are expected to show wear after time, but airbags and other safetyfeatures should always be ready to work as if they were brand new. In Honda’scase, there is concern that their airbags may explode during a crash causingpieces of metal and plastic to shoot towards the passengers. Not good.It’s crazy to think that airbags in the driver and passengerseats have only been required by law since 1998. Since then airbags haveobviously advanced and are now located in many areas in a vehicle. In many vehiclesyou can now find up to eight airbags, some of which fall like curtains over theglass windows or deploy inside to prevent passengers from hitting each other. Sideairbags can deploy for up to five seconds which is especially important inrollover accidents. To be sure airbags don’t activate from rough pavement orsmall fender benders, the crash sensors are programed to detect only severedeceleration. Basically, if you got your car going as fast as it can drive andslammed on your brakes as hard as you could, you would only be decelerating ata fraction of the speed the crash sensors are meant to detect
Newer vehicles can even detect how much weight is on a seatso they don’t deploy on, for example, your beagle napping in the passenger seat.They can also determine the severity of a crash, your seat position, whether ornot your seatbelt is on, and other factors to know the safest amount of air tofill your airbag (if any). I’ve never seen an airbag deploy and hope I don’thave to, but these advancements in car safety are definitely comforting..Especially having to commute with these southern California drivers.
