Friday, May 22, 2009 at 11:51
Mike,
Firstly my hilarious comment below reads like it's mocking you, but is aimed at the blogger. Just to clear that up ;)
Now we should not forget that SRS means *supplemental* restraint system. Always wear a belt - that's your primary system. These people appear to have - it worked, apparently. Not that they're grateful.
We should also remember that SRS is designed for primary impact, not to be a firecracker of pyrotechnic bags as your car pirouettes down the road.
SRS systems vary a lot, depending on age, bags fitted and manufacturer. Comment on this specific case without better information is hard as all that is offered is a picture of the damaged car and a line drawing.
Focusing on side airbags and curtains.
Side airbags are usually fixed into the
seat and/or the A, B or even C pillars. These are primarily designed to cushion lower limbs and torso in intruding side-on impacts. A T-bone crash. These measure a specific level of unanticipated force from a certain angle range. Since this appears a fairly low speed roll-over (left side impact-leading windows are intact), there would not have been nearly the level of force to trigger these.
Curtains are normally hard-wired to the side-impact circuit. One goes off, so does the other. Or not as is the case here. The main purpose of these is to reduce lateral whiplash in intrusive side-impacts.
As the blogger alludes to, some manufacturers have an additional curtain circuit which uses ESP and other information about vehicle dynamics to determine a pure rollover trigger. This vehicle doesn't have it, but I would honestly question its benefit. As it only did one 270 degree roll, the speed was comparatively low, so I question the benefit of the curtain. As I mention before, they're a big bang going off next to your lug-hole!
Again, the blogger comes off as being more miffed at the non-explosion of their "I paid for them" optional airbags, than proposing any enhanced safety they would have brought to this situation.
T
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