Thought i would ask here. My daughter has just,in the last hour, been involved in a car crash. Not her fault. Now, the airbag in her 04 plate Vauxhall didnt activate. This needs reporting, would she contact Vauxhall motors or the car sales who she bought it off.
My daughter, her partner and my 10 year old grandson are up at a and e now hopefully its just whiplash and bruised ribs.
Thanks folks

If she was not wearing a seat belt it won`t activate .. Hope she`s ok
It depends on the vehicle, and the severity of the crash. In some cars the airbag is linked to the seatbelt as well as occupant sensors, and uses information such as vehicle speed, angle of impact, g forces and other information to deploy certain airbags or not. The newer the vehicle the more advanced this system is. Older cars this may not be the case. The vehicles manufacturer may be of better assistance

Fireman on the way to work smashed into my car at 40mph, he had his seatbelt on and his airbag went off on his BMW.

Thanks for your replies. They've just got back from Arrowe Park thankfully just classic whiplash.

Hi, I`m glad they are all ok :-)

Glad to hear everybody is okay.

As mentioned, airbags don't always deploy, it depends on angles, deceleration rate (rather than speed), if seatbelts are on etc.

The airbag has to know if you've slammed on the brakes (you're slowing down) or you've hit something (impact). However it can't work on just one or the other, otherwise the bag would go off if you touched another car when parking, so it needs a minimum speed as well.

The usual figures (and this has a lot of variances) is about 10-16 miles per hour minimum speed before impact, and around 7Gs of force (there is a big diffence between an immediate stop, hitting a tree for example, or a car coming in opposite direction, and rear ending a vehicle in front, it's all to do with transference of energy, which gets a bit complicated, especially at this time in the morning ).

Vauxhall can plug the car into their diagnostics machine to see why it chose not to deploy, but you will need a main dealer to read this, a standard fault check will just do that, look for faults, you're looking to see what the controller has stored and you don't want this deleting. The insurance company might want to check as well, to make sure that the airbag is working as it should, that the self test works, and that one is actually fitted (it has been known for places to buy cheap cars with deployed bags, fit a new steering wheel cover and put a trick bulb in the dash which just lights for a few seconds when power is applied, no one knows until its needed that a VERY expensive airbag isn't fitted ).

In the end, everyone is okay, the rest doesn't really matter.

True Dr as my husband said its only a car, which has been written off, they are all safe although stiff and sore. Thanks for all your answers and concern xx

The airbag will only go off when its needed. You can probably be glad it didn't go off. My mate had a crash and the airbag deployed, should have seen the mess it made to his face, broke his nose aswell, but as he says, probably saved him from a fractured skull.