# Airbags didn't go off



## Patricia8885 (Aug 28, 2012)

Hi everyone! I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right place but I'll give this a try. So I got my cruze in May of this year and a week ago I was in an accident in which I was hit on the driver side. It was really scary! But.. I'm a bit confused as to why none of the airbags went off? The hit wasn't at a high speed. I must've been going around between 10-15mph and the car that hit me (which was a lifted Ford F 150) was approximately going 20mph. I was going straight across from one shopping center to another and he had his turn signal to make a left, he was coming out of the shopping center I was entering, I had the right of way... I thought he would of been paying more attention but apparently not. Anyways, after the accident happened the police, paramedics and firefighters were called and they weren't even able to pull me out of the drivers side. There is a lot of damage to the car and I'm not sure yet if it's a total loss.
I am trying to add the pictures but am having issues :angry: I'm on a mac, so if anyone can help? I have them on my computer. 
After the accident, and I was parked, I couldn't turn the ignition off either. It was like it was locked. When they took me to the hospital the car was still running so I don't know how they turned it off. The inside of the driver door hit me on my left hip and I have a lot of bruising. 
I'm wondering if one of the airbags should've gone off? I'm wondering why none of them did. OH! and is onstar supposed to contact me after ANY accident? Or only if the airbags are deployed? 
Thanks in advance for reading this and I'll get the pics up as soon as I figure it out!


----------



## Patricia8885 (Aug 28, 2012)

here's a side view







That's the door (obviously lol)















Some of the damage on the inside.

I will get more pictures and post them tomorrow.


----------



## Dale_K (Jul 16, 2011)

Wow. I'm glad you're pretty much OK. I'm no engineer but I'm pretty sure that airbag systems have a certain threshold that needs to be exceeded before deploying the bags. I don't know if yours were working properly or not but they won't go off on a minor crash. And I don't think Onstar will make an emergency notification if the airbags are not deployed.

There is a Chevy customer service person who monitors this website. Maybe they can shed some light on the situation. There is a way to file a complaint with NHTSA if you think the car's safety equipment didn't work. I'm not saying that's the case here but it would be your decision as far as contacting them.


----------



## sciphi (Aug 26, 2011)

The airbags won't go off in a low-speed hit if you're wearing your seatbelt. I'm guessing the speeds and angle involved made airbags un-necessary. 

I'd guess that's about $5-6k of damage, or not enough to total the car. 2 new doors, new fender, interior trim pieces, and re-paint. 

Insist on genuine GM replacement parts, as aftermarket body parts won't stand the test of time. Been through that one on an older car, and it was painfully obvious where an aftermarket door and headlight were used after 3-4 years.


----------



## Hoon (Mar 18, 2012)

Were you wearing your seatbelt? If not, the airbags will not go off in any accident.


----------



## danimal (Oct 4, 2011)

In all cases?


----------



## socalcruze (Aug 4, 2012)

Hoon said:


> Were you wearing your seatbelt? If not, the airbags will not go off in any accident.


That is a completely incorrect statement. Wearing your seat belt does not affect whether or not the airbags go off.

It looks to me like this hit was just a little below the threshold to trigger the side air bags. Another factor is that you were hit by a lifted truck, so the impact point was higher than "normal" which may have changed the acceleration dynamics of the crash just enough to keep the airbags from deploying. I would encourage you to report this to GM so that can further evaluate the crash data (maybe pull the event data recorder).

Jeff


----------



## Hoon (Mar 18, 2012)

socalcruze said:


> That is a completely incorrect statement. Wearing your seat belt does not affect whether or not the airbags go off.


I'd have to look that up for the Cruze. It depends on the vehicle, some vehicles will not deploy regardless of accident if you are not wearing a seatbelt because the airbag can do more harm than good in that situation.


----------



## GoldenCruze (Dec 18, 2011)

Hoon said:


> Were you wearing your seatbelt? If not, the airbags will not go off in any accident.


Simply not true. I was involved with helping injured at an accident recently. Seatbelts in use in all cars and deflated airbags were hanging out there.


----------



## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

The only airbags that are designed to not go off are the passenger side front bag and then only if you override the front passenger seat belt warning. This is to allow you to put a backwards facing child safety seat in that seat. The only cars I know of with this feature don't have a back seat.


----------



## sciphi (Aug 26, 2011)

Hoon said:


> Were you wearing your seatbelt? If not, the airbags will not go off in any accident.


Incorrect. Airbags will go off even with seatbelt use if the acceleration (any change in speed for those of you who napped through middle-school science class) upon hitting something is above a certain threshold. I know this from experience in other cars. 

Seatbelts, especially 3-point belts, are pretty safe in an accident. Unless the seatbelt mount fails, the belt will restrain one until it's manually released. Airbags are less safe since they only function for a brief period of time, and don't remain inflated for more than a split second. They're meant to be supplemental restraints to a seatbelt. So, the airbag controller is programmed to analyze the inputs from the accelerometers at various points around the car, and determine if there's enough force acting on the car during a crash where slamming into the airbags is an acceptable alternative to slamming one's body parts into metal/glass/pavement.

This car's computers know if there's no seatbelt being used by the front seat occupants. It dings and flashes a message on the DIC if even the front passenger isn't wearing a seatbelt. In that case, it's more likely to deploy airbags, since the chances of serious injury increase greatly when unbelted. 

The logic of the airbag controller is to use the seatbelts first, and then determine what airbags to deploy if warranted. 

Airbags can really mess people up. I got slightly burned by a deploying airbag. However, a 1st degree burn is preferable to a concussion from impacting the windshield. So, using the seatbelt first is preferable.


----------



## Patricia8885 (Aug 28, 2012)

First off I'd like to say thank you to everyone that replied. I was wearing my seat belt during the accident. I just thought that from where I was hit atleast one of the airbags would've gone off. I will be reporting this to GM so they can look over everything, just to be on the safe side.


----------



## CruzeTech (Mar 23, 2012)

You'd figure that if someone was running a slalom in their Camaro and the side airbags went off, that in a car with a 20mph crash, they would also go off. Seems silly they didn't. 


Sent from my Autoguide iPhone app


----------



## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

CruzeTech said:


> You'd figure that if someone was running a slalom in their Camaro and the side airbags went off, that in a car with a 20mph crash, they would also go off. Seems silly they didn't.
> 
> 
> Sent from my Autoguide iPhone app


I suspect the Camaro problem is related somehow to the 2013 Malibu ECO recall for unexpected airbag deployment. Basically the 2013 Malibu ECO had a software bug that would cause the airbag system to reset during rapid S turns and during reinitialization the G forces confused the system and it thought the car was rolling over. If you watch the video of the Camaro you'll see that his airbag didn't deploy until he did a tight S turn.


----------



## Starks8 (Jul 20, 2011)

I would think that cruze's side window airbag would have at least deployed. Glad you are okay!


----------



## AJM11 (Aug 21, 2012)

I am wondering if maybe the Truck being lifted so the bumper was higher than the sensors for the air bags in the side on the Cruze.


----------



## jdubb11 (Mar 14, 2012)

as ive stated before, my car was hit at a "high rate of speed" and none of the air bags went off either. spun me 180 degrees and over a wide curbed median. i never filed a report but probably should have. no seatbelt was worn. glad you are ok!!


----------



## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

AJM11 said:


> I am wondering if maybe the Truck being lifted so the bumper was higher than the sensors for the air bags in the side on the Cruze.


That shouldn't make a difference. The sensors are based on G forces which are somewhat independent of the actual impact location.


----------



## socalcruze (Aug 4, 2012)

jdubb11 said:


> as ive stated before, my car was hit at a "high rate of speed" and none of the air bags went off either. spun me 180 degrees and over a wide curbed median. i never filed a report but probably should have. no seatbelt was worn. glad you are ok!!
> View attachment 7276



Given the visible damage in the photo, it looks like the car's structure did exactly what you would hope to prevent intrusion into the passenger compartment. I don't see how an airbag deployment would have helped in this situation. The initial force would shove you back into your seat, not forward, and I don't see any side impact damage than an airbag would have mitigated.


----------



## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

Patricia8885 said:


> Hi everyone! I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right place but I'll give this a try. So I got my cruze in May of this year and a week ago I was in an accident in which I was hit on the driver side. It was really scary! But.. I'm a bit confused as to why none of the airbags went off? The hit wasn't at a high speed. I must've been going around between 10-15mph and the car that hit me (which was a lifted Ford F 150) was approximately going 20mph. I was going straight across from one shopping center to another and he had his turn signal to make a left, he was coming out of the shopping center I was entering, I had the right of way... I thought he would of been paying more attention but apparently not. Anyways, after the accident happened the police, paramedics and firefighters were called and they weren't even able to pull me out of the drivers side. There is a lot of damage to the car and I'm not sure yet if it's a total loss.
> I am trying to add the pictures but am having issues :angry: I'm on a mac, so if anyone can help? I have them on my computer.
> After the accident, and I was parked, I couldn't turn the ignition off either. It was like it was locked. When they took me to the hospital the car was still running so I don't know how they turned it off. The inside of the driver door hit me on my left hip and I have a lot of bruising.
> I'm wondering if one of the airbags should've gone off? I'm wondering why none of them did. OH! and is onstar supposed to contact me after ANY accident? Or only if the airbags are deployed?
> Thanks in advance for reading this and I'll get the pics up as soon as I figure it out!




Patricia8885,
I would like to apologize for the experience that you had with your Cruze. I understand your concerns with this. I would like to look into this further for you. Can you please send me a PM with your name, address, phone number, VIN, current mileage and the name of your dealer? I look forward to hearing back from you as well as assisting you. 
Thank you,
Stacy Chevrolet Customer Service


----------



## Patricia8885 (Aug 28, 2012)

Thank you everyone for your replies. I have contacted GM about this and am waiting for them to call me back. I was instructed to wait on starting the repairs. I will post what happens when they contact me.


----------



## TheRupp (May 8, 2012)

I see that you've contacted GM about this issue, but if you haven't already done so, I would highly recommend contacting the user who posted previous to your last post. She is very proactive in any Cruze issues and can subsequently escalate issues very quickly.


----------



## Monica (Feb 22, 2021)

Patricia8885 said:


> Hi everyone! I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right place but I'll give this a try. So I got my cruze in May of this year and a week ago I was in an accident in which I was hit on the driver side. It was really scary! But.. I'm a bit confused as to why none of the airbags went off? The hit wasn't at a high speed. I must've been going around between 10-15mph and the car that hit me (which was a lifted Ford F 150) was approximately going 20mph. I was going straight across from one shopping center to another and he had his turn signal to make a left, he was coming out of the shopping center I was entering, I had the right of way... I thought he would of been paying more attention but apparently not. Anyways, after the accident happened the police, paramedics and firefighters were called and they weren't even able to pull me out of the drivers side. There is a lot of damage to the car and I'm not sure yet if it's a total loss.
> I am trying to add the pictures but am having issues 😠 I'm on a mac, so if anyone can help? I have them on my computer.
> After the accident, and I was parked, I couldn't turn the ignition off either. It was like it was locked. When they took me to the hospital the car was still running so I don't know how they turned it off. The inside of the driver door hit me on my left hip and I have a lot of bruising.
> I'm wondering if one of the airbags should've gone off? I'm wondering why none of them did. OH! and is onstar supposed to contact me after ANY accident? Or only if the airbags are deployed?
> Thanks in advance for reading this and I'll get the pics up as soon as I figure it out!


Im noticing a theme with the Chevy Cruze. 3 accidents for me in five years different sides different speeds they never deployed


----------

