[silenthkr]

I had a 2005 v8 touareg, yesterday I was rear-ended by a semi on the highway , I was hit by semi at a min 100kmh. from a 0 kmh position on side of road my truck was thrown across 3 lanes of traffic, was struck by a car head on and both ended up 25 feet off the highway. no air bags deployed, truck is a total write off by insurance. air bags were active, no dash light before crash.

 

[Dubby]

Now that's a worry! Injuries? Passenger cell appears to be pretty much intact. Dub

 

[seafarer28]

You mention you were stopped at the side of the road, was the car running at the time?

 

[Yeti]

You mention you were stopped at the side of the road, was the car running at the time?

Would be interested to hear the answer to this question also.

 

[silenthkr]

two broken fingers.. lucked out

 

[silenthkr]

Would be interested to hear the answer to this question also.

car was in park, stopped to help guy in ditch

 

[silenthkr]

car was in park, stopped to help guy in ditch

and running

 

[seafarer28]

and running

That makes it a worry!
Did the police show any interest in making enquiries as to why they didn't deploy?

tonyB

 

[FSJ Guy]

I hope everyone was alright.

Since the front coolers (radiator, oil cooler, etc.) are still intact, it may not have been a hard enough impact to fire off the airbags. <shrug>

Although the front force bar (bumper) is bent down. Unless that happened over a longer period of time (due to sliding along the ground, for example), it would take a good hit to bent that.

The rear end looks pretty good for being hit by a large vehicle, though. Gotta love modern technology and engineering design.

 

[JohanVE]

The airbags will not deploy when standing or rear ended. The seat backrest will absorb the impact.

 

[FSJ Guy]

The OP said an oncoming vehicle collided with him when he was pushed across lanes of traffic.

I'm also wondering if the initial impact didn't cause the electrical system to shut down. Isn' there a big master fuse or something that has to be reset after an airbag output test via VCDS?

 

[TREGinginCO]

I am sure there is some scientific explanation for this. I would write a letter to VW and see if their engineering folks can give an explainer

 

[Blownvette]

I am sure there is some scientific explanation for this. I would write a letter to VW and see if their engineering folks can give an explainer

He said the car was in park...my understanding is that several parameters have to be met in order for the airbag to deploy. If you are parked the parameters are not met as the car has to be above a certain speed at impact.

 

[Spiegelglatt]

Glad you are ok, that is a pretty big hit.

He said the car was in park...my understanding is that several parameters have to be met in order for the airbag to deploy. If you are parked the parameters are not met as the car has to be above a certain speed at impact.

I am by no means an expert, but I tend to agree^.

I figure if the car is in park "it" has little to no feedback on speed to calculate airbag deployment force. Any G force generated from the frontal impact may have been negated by no speed data? Very well could done more harm to deploy than not in this scenario.

Also, we're you belted in?

 

[silenthkr]

my friends o5 touareg was hit, waiting for the light to change, very little damage to driver side front, driver and passenger bags went off.

 

[[email protected]]

damage does not look that bad to deploy anything

 

[lml999]

Folks, we can all hypothesize about the algorithms in the Touareg...

Will the airbag deploy if...

- the transmission is in park
- the wheels are not turning
- the recorded vehicle speed is greater than ?

What we do not know about this particular event includes:

- was the wiring damaged by the initial rear-end collision
- the ground speed (measured by the vehicle or not) of the vehicle at the time of the second accident
- how hard was the secondary collision

Potentially the airbag computer or related wiring was damaged, or the computer calculated that airbag deployment was not necessary. Or the system had some other fault.

Lets leave it up to the forensic experts to determine. I certainly can't add much additional value from my armchair.

 

[compu_85]

The reason the airbags didn't go off is because no airbag deploys in a rear end impact, and the front end impact looks like it wasn't very forceful, so it didn't cross the deployment threshold.

Did the seatbelt tensioner deploy?

-J

 

[hedditch]

Looks like your Airbags Worked as Designed

There are a lot of misunderstandings about over AirBag deployment..

1. They will NOT deploy from a rear end collision , no matter how hard.
2. The front end collision must be within 30degree of the centre line (60 degree over all)
3. Or a side collision
4. Deployment force required is usually 20g ( 20 x gravity).

The following is an interesting read..

Airbags | Airbag deployment | Car crashes

It looks like you secondary collision was either below 20g of force or more than 30 degree off the centre line. if that is the case then they are working as designed.

Stuart

 

[Fourdiesel]

There are a lot of misunderstandings about over AirBag deployment..

1. They will NOT deploy from a rear end collision , no matter how hard.
2. The front end collision must be within 30degree of the centre line (60 degree over all)
3. Or a side collision
4. Deployment force required is usually 20g ( 20 x gravity).

The following is an interesting read..

Airbags | Airbag deployment | Car crashes

It looks like you secondary collision was either below 20g of force or more than 30 degree off the centre line. if that is the case then they are working as designed.

Stuart

Or not working as designed as the case may be. And I thought the Takata air bags were dangerous because they deployed when they were NOT supposed to and caused unnecessary and avoidable injury or death!
Quite a story.