Recently involved in accident resulting in severe head & neck injury. The specifics car : 2005, 6MN, Z-51, 3LT, 'vert, accident: in order to avoid frontal collision, had to swerve quickly, left rear tire caught on shoulder pulling the car into sideways slide. Police on scene, accident considered unavoidible, report recorded as no fault. Struck concrete lightpost between rear wheel and rear of door at apprx. 40 mph. Side airbag equipt veh. which did not deploy, head went through window breaking glass, possibly hit pole (no memory), resulting in tramatic brain injury, severe neck, minor back injury. Impact of body to door severe enough to rip rear latch from door jamb & dislodge front hinges to point door was detached from vehicle sans wiring.

The airbag deploying could/would have significantly altered severity of injuries. Seeking advise re: the failure of vehicle safety features, past experience, etc.

Injuries, not life threatening, although head and neck injuries perminent. Still seeking treatment options. Any help specific to vehicle safety feature failure would be greatly appreciated.

 

Sorry to hear that. I wish I could help but that's not my area of expertise. I wish you the best.

San

 

Sorry to hear about your misfortune, but glad you're doing relatively fine. As far as being the car's fault, it might not be. First of all, side airbag deployment is not designed with a post in mind on ANY vehicle. Having said that, it all depends where the sensor is (I don't know), and if it was supposed to activate if nearby. Finally, you didn't say if you bought the car new or used. If used, previous owner could have swapped the seats with newer ones, making you believe car was equipped with side airbags. Or he might have made modifications to the car that willingly or unwillingly disabled it. Too many pieces of information you didn't provide.

Finally, you didn't say why you were trying to avoid a frontal collision. But it certainly does NOT sound like an 'unavoidable accident' to me . Sounds like somebody was distracted. At any rate, your insurance should cover you (you're insured, right?), and let them worry about who to go after. Good luck.

 

Wow. You're Miss Cleo? If a vehicle pulls directly in front of you that would be an unavoidable accident. Without knowing all the details, I'd never assume anything like "somebody was distracted", much less post it on the forum. Rude at best, considering the OP has permanent injuries. Mighty nice of you to dismiss the OP to his insurance and wish him luck.

San

 

Thanks for some details. I didn't like his post either.

San

 

The sensor that trips the side airbags is in the door about 5 inches forward of the latch and slightly above it. That sends a signal to the SDM (Sensing Diagnostic Module) which is located in the lower center console in front of the shifter. The module then compares the external signal strength to the internal sensor and a stored value. If the sensor calculations are sufficient then the airbag circuit is activated and the airbag deploys.

The system has a built-in electrical reserve to compensate for loss of battery power and performs self checks to ensure all circuits are connected and active.

I would suspect your airbag didn't deploy due to the angle and location the car struck the pole per my understanding of your description. Without seeing the car in person, it's hard to visualize the direction of impact. Photos can be deceiving. It will take an investigator who is familiar with the systems and accident reconstruction to determine if the force was sufficient to trip the sensor.

I hope you will continue to recover and eventually get back to enjoying the things you love. Cars can be easily replaced.

 

Is it safe to assume you dodged an animal, lost control and hit a pole??? If I assumed in error, I apologize.

It reminds me of a newspaper headline from the 1970's "Hodges Dodge dodges dog hits pole", uhh that would be Kent Hodges.

 

Sorry to hear of your injury's.

It can happen in a instant.

Be safe..

 

Still looking for more definative info please. Have lawyer pursuing data recorder, & have been cleared top retieve data by ins. co.

 

Could you be more specific about what information you expect to find on this forum.

Has your lawyer hired an independent accident investigator to reconstruct the forces involved that were placed on the door sensor and those placed on the whole car? Have all the parts required to activate the airbags been removed from the car for evaluation, including the seat belt tensioner? Do you know what the stored values are in the SDM that need to be exceeded to activate the airbags?

Until you have that mathematical data, there is no method to determine if there was a failure in the system. Simply because the airbag didn't deploy doesn't automatically indicate a system failure.

 

I'm very sorry to hear of your unfortunate accident.

I agree completely with HOXXOH - the angles, forces, location of impact, etc., are going to have to be analyzed by an experienced accident investigator to come up with the info you're after.

Like HOXXOH said, the location of the side impact sensor is at the rear of the door. You can see the sensor in the graphic below - at the bottom right is the door and item#4 is the Impact sensor:




You say the pole impacted to the rear of the door, and the door separated from the car. Perhaps the fact that the door separated didn't allow the sensor to receive the G-force necessary to activate it. If the pole had impacted the door and not allowed it to separate from the car the sensor may have sensed the the force required to activate it, but then the pole would have impacted right next to where you were sitting, and that may have been a worse scenario.

So....the accident investigators are going to have to analyze the situation and all the components of your airbag system to come up with why the side airbag didn't activate.

I wish you all the best for a quick and complete recovery!!!

Hopefully you'll be back 100% soon!!

Bob

 

Thanks for the graphics Bob.

In addition to the door sensor itself, the SDM internal sensor must be tripped and then both values are compared with a predetermined value that needs to be exceeded before activating the airbag. Without these checks and balances, it would be possible to deploy the airbag by simply slamming the door closed.

I haven't traced the circuits, but I suspect the SDM internal sensor (because of its central location) is the same one that controls the active handling and presents the G-force info on the HUD.

 

Sorry OP, to hear you were injured in an accident.

If it was because of an animal IN the road, and you swerved to avoid it, that to me makes the outcome your fault, airbag deploying or not, due to "not having control" of the vehicle.

Next time, run the ANIMAL over - would have been a lot less damage to yourself if you stayed on the road.

This sounds like you tried to swerve, lost control, crashed, and now you want to sue GM because the airbag didn't deploy. You wouldn't have crashed sideways into the concrete if you didn't swerve, correct?

I don't see what you are after.. is it to make the car safer,
or to SUE GM, because you had an accident you could have avoided and feel entitled to Millions of dollars because you were injured?

I'm not trying to be an ***, but I don't see what you are after, other than money.

 

But your still succeeding. W/ LEO as a witness, why was the accident written no fault, oppose a tickey issued for failure to control vehicle. Have you seen one mention of money, again supposition. Go bother soemone else. How 'bout if you had wondered in my path, should I have taken you out? I'm simply trying to find out if there was a malfunction or not and proceed accordingly. Google "Tramatic Brain Injury", educate yourself, then consider pointing fingers.

 

Next time write the pertinent details, if you don't want people to make assumptions... which were apparently true . As it was said, MUCH better to run over an animal than what you did, so the 'unavoidable' part is your justification for not being an experienced driver. The truth hurts sometimes. And you want to go after GM? And you called me an '***@#$!' ? Ignored. Have a good life man. And for your own sake, take some accident avoidance driving lessons. Seriously. Oh, and open your hood and look where the airbag sensors are, and see who's knowledge is worthless. If you had hit the pole right in the middle, you'd also think it was GM's fault front airbag(s) didn't deploy .

 

"Oh, and open your hood and look where the airbag sensors are, and see who's knowledge is worthless."

So by looking under the hood, I'll find the airbag sensor located in the door which deploys the airbag from upper 1/3 of seat for side impact collision to keep your head from going through the window or striking whatever impacts the car. You take the cake brother, the rest isn't even worth comment.

How does one justify such behavoir when a member simply asks a very pertinent question. If you don't like the question, no answer necessary. Would you have bothered to be such an idiot if I simply asked for a torque spec? I guess 3 emoticons explains a great deal.

 

Sorry to hear about your accident and injuries, but personal attacks and hostility toward others is not wanted on the forum. This thread will not stay open long if it continues.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/foru...rd-others.html

 

I can't believe some here are playing armchair quarterback when they didn't even see the play.

Threatening to lock this thread is obviously not the biggest problem the OP has at the moment.

Thankfully some people have actually provided useful information.

San

 

having seen various sizes of "animals" that invade the road, on the side of the road...I can think of a lot of animals I WOULD NOT LIKE TO HIT STRAIGHT ON. such as buffalo, deer, elk, pigs, cows, horses, etc.

and, yes, I have seen them on the road and by the side of the road quite dead.

the best (worst, really) and most likely example is, of course, deer. if you've never seen one go thru a windshield and kill or severely injure people inside, consider yourself lucky. deer are not dogs that get booted 150 feet down the road. they go up, and in the car frequently.

so, let's leave the "hit-'em-straight-on-is-better-for-you" theories in the lab where theories belong. unless you were there, you just don't know.....that's why it's called an accident....no one plans it to happen.

 

We can go 'round & 'round w/ the silliness. I will not reply anymore.

Specifically, someone asked what type of info was I was seeking. Basically:

1. has anyone had personal experience with a side impact where airbag did/did not deploy. If so, would they mind posting the particulars.

2. I'm sure there's a check down algorhythem, i.e. specific weight met by seat occupant (my other car when I throw my briefcase in the front seat it senses the weight of a small child, thus disables & a warning light goes on), seatbelt buckled, door closed, etc. So any info here may be helpful.

3. What eactly triggers sensor, I find it hard to believe it has more to do w/ a direct hit, but rather meeting the algorhythem and a specific G-Force caused by an impact from a specific direction.

We need not worry about the particulars of how it happened, but rather what happended. Because i was knocked unconscious I cannot with 100% accuracy the specifics, but based memory leading up & looking at the after effects the particulars are as follows.

1. I had just accelerated onto highway and shifted to 2nd (6MN) so at max rpm, that's around 40mph. May have accelerated 10 more mph b/f had to take avasive manuver. Quick left, probably 1/4 turn to avoid dog, then quick right to avoid flt shoulder, gravel, grass median

2. Left rear tire hook weak shoulder, hooking the car perpindicular to road, car as best I can guess slid completely into grass striking cement highway lamp.

3. My stature is 5'7" 185 w/ 33" waist, point being thick & pretty muscled through chest & shoulders & given height low in seat. Pole struck veh., guessing 90* right at gas filler. Broad shoulders mahe contact w/ door & elbow on armrest hand at wheel. Point, body is already in contact w/ inner door panel in normal seated pos.

4. Force of impact caused main mass (chest & shoulders) to strike door w/ sufficient force to rip lock latch of fiberglass door jamb. BTW, newer models have a heavy internal latch seen on vrtually all cars. Front hinges gave way as well.

5. Simultaneously neck whiplashed, head striking window which disintergrated as auto glass does.

6. Forward momentum caused veh. to semi right itself in initial direction and come to rest 30-40 ft, from pole still in median.

7. Car total loss. Have both auto & health insurnace. Slow to recover accident took place 2/15.

I'm simply trying to ascertain if the airbag should have deployed, cannot say definitively, but given airbag proximatey & injuries, intuitively one wouls think injuries may been lessoned/avoided.

I feel this is a question worth asking. Tramatic brain injuries don't heal, they are managed, neck injury may be possibly corrected surgically.

So that's it in a nutshell. I'm am awre of the legal route, but honestly I am trying to educate myself on the SRS for now to understand what happened. My injuries are permenant and treatment on-going, so I have no idea where I'll be in 6 weeks, 6 mos., 6 years.

Feel free to respond w/ questions specific to the accident. Please no more wudda, cudda, shudda, or judgemental replies. I seeking facts thats all. Thanks to all who have passed on well wishes and insightful info.