Xantia Airbag

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XantiaDaveEire
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Xantia Airbag

Post by XantiaDaveEire »

I certainly wouldn't want to be on the recieving end of this :shock:


It looks like it would cause more damage than it would save :roll:
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spider
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Post by spider »

That was quite a gentle one ;)

I've only had one car (about eight maybe nine years ago now, non PSA) with an airbag and that was not connected for long after I took ownership.

Given my short legs :( , I have to sit a bit too close to it for my liking. An auto might be better for me as I can sit one 'notch' further back typically.

I think if I have to do it again, I'd fit a proper plug in resistor to ensure the pretensioners still work though.

I do wonder what the insurance company would say, although I do recall we had to do this to a 406 once after the customer signed endless legal disclaimers about it.
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Post by addo »

Looks fine to me, if a little underpowered. People underestimate the massive forces exerted by a person lurching forward at 50MPH or more.

Having had the odd high-speed "off" - I'll take a handful of busted ribs and a broken nose over worse outcomes, any day.

Excluding freakish cases where (for example) people have had a large amount of abdominal muscle removed or damaged, everyone is safer with an airbag in front of them, PROVIDED the airbag deploys as expected and they sit an appropriate distance from it.

A serious crash is always a punt. Why does anyone want to remove odds in their favour?

It's my belief that people who seek an exemption are generally either misguided or seriously obese (or both!) - either situation exists outside the car and will hinder life until it's taken in hand...
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Post by spider »

I would agree, but there have been a few rare cases of people being killed by their airbag (broken neck etc) where if they had not had one they would of survived. If their seating position (too close) was the cause, I am not sure.

Although to put that into perspective, you could say the same about seatbelts I do remember something years ago where someone only managed to get out alive due to not wearing a seatbelt, cannot remember the specifics but I think it involved a tram ( ! ) , but these things are rare.

I do think that one going off in the video was an older one though as it was a bit gentle and quiet, for want of a better description.

They do say at around 30mph the force of a person moving is equivalent to an elephant or something though :?:
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Post by Xaccers »

spider wrote:I would agree, but there have been a few rare cases of people being killed by their airbag (broken neck etc) where if they had not had one they would of survived. If their seating position (too close) was the cause, I am not sure.
The two in the UK that I know about involved women who sat practically on top of their steering wheels, the bag went off when they crashed and severed their necks at the base of the scull.
Sit properly and you won't have that happen.
Other air bag related deaths I know about are from the US, where they have larger bags which inflate in the same time as ours (so much more powerful) as they have to presume that the driver isn't wearing a seatbelt.
One case involved a 5 year old girl who's father would drive with her standing in the passenger foot well, leaning on the airbag...
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Post by addo »

Yes, correct seated position is essential; it's also pretty good ergonomically.
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Post by Xaccers »

One of the deaths was of a 9/10 year old girl sat in the passenger seat without the proper child restraint, the seat was quite some way forward and she was leaning forward writting a text to her grandmother, while her mother drove them back from the beach.
Her mother leaned over to see what she had written and crashed.
The girl's head must have been only inches away from the passenger airbag, fracturing it at the base of the skull and killing her instantly.
Had her mother been adhering to the law and put her child in a suitable safety restraint, or even just told her to sit back, she'd have lived.
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