When Should an Airbag Inflate?Frontal airbags are designed to inflate in moderate tosevere frontal or near-frontal crashes to help reduce thepotential for severe injuries mainly to the driver’s orright front passenger’s head and chest. However, theyare only designed to inflate if the impact exceeds apredetermined deployment threshold. Deploymentthresholds are used to predict how severe a crash islikely to be in time for the airbags to inflate andhelp restrain the occupants.Whether your frontal airbags will or should deploy is notbased on how fast your vehicle is traveling. It dependslargely on what you hit, the direction of the impact,and how quickly your vehicle slows down.Frontal airbags may inflate at different crash speeds.For example:• If the vehicle hits a stationary object, the airbagscould inflate at a different crash speed than if thevehicle hits a moving object.• If the vehicle hits an object that deforms, theairbags could inflate at a different crash speed thanif the vehicle hits an object does not deform.• If the vehicle hits a narrow object (like a pole), theairbags could inflate at a different crash speedthan if the vehicle hits a wide object (like a wall).• If the vehicle goes into an object at an angle, theairbags could inflate at a different crash speedthan if the vehicle goes straight into the object.Thresholds can also vary with specific vehicle design.Frontal airbags are not intended to inflate during vehiclerollovers, rear impacts, or in many side impacts.In addition, your vehicle has dual-stage frontal airbags.Dual-stage airbags adjust the restraint according tocrash severity. Your vehicle has electronic frontalsensors, which help the sensing system distinguishbetween a moderate frontal impact and a more severefrontal impact. For moderate frontal impacts, dual-stageairbags inflate at a level less than full deployment.For more severe frontal impacts, full deployment occurs.Your vehicle has a seat position sensor which enablesthe sensing system to monitor the position of the driver’sseat. The seat position sensor provides informationthat is used to determine if the airbags should deploy ata reduced level or at full deployment.Your vehicle has roof-rail airbags. See Airbag Systemon page 1-53. Roof-rail airbags are intended to inflate inmoderate to severe side crashes. In addition, theseroof-rail airbags are intended to inflate during a rolloveror in a severe frontal impact. Roof-rail airbags willinflate if the crash severity is above the system’sdesigned threshold level. The threshold level can varywith specific vehicle design.1-58
