My wife got into an accident tonight. A woman, who was absolutely intoxicated, turned right in front of her. They hit, the other lady was at fault, there were three witness including a lady who was following her who said she had been driving all crazy, her car definately got the worst of the damage. With the other car, both of her front airbags went off. Neither of ours went off. A guy at the scene warned about the airbags possibly still being able to be triggered. Well....the state trooper got in our car to move it off the road....BOOM....airbag goes off right in her face. I felt bad but it was funny as hell. Kodak moment.
Awesome story...
- Thread starter Fla02LS
- Start date
NVMyLS
Active LVC Member
That has got to be one of the funniest things that I've ever heard involving an airbag and if I was there, I would have probably wet myself laughing so hard. Hope your wife was ok though.....
HyeLifeLS
Dedicated LVC Member
Thats some funny stuff right there!! I guess it is the dodge, yea?
lexmarkz00
Well-Known LVC Member
I feel bad for posting in this topic since my username doesn't end in "LS," but oh well. 
Motodrew
Well-Known LVC Member
I'd hate to be that officer... probably feeling it in the face today ya think??
-- I didn't want to leave ya hangin LexmarkZ00...--
-- I didn't want to leave ya hangin LexmarkZ00...--
2001LS8Sport
Dedicated LVC Member
Wow. I thought those systems were safer than that. I would be very interested in knowing why it went off AFTER the collision. Very weird.
My wife was in the Intrepid which held up pretty good, she wasnt injured at all, the other lady had a nissan sentra which was trashed. The lady wasnt wearing her sealtbelt and her face was just beat up from the airbag and went to the hospital. The trooper was actually turned looking backwards while backing up when it went off, so she lucked out i guess. Still scared the SH!T out of her. This all sucks though waiting for the insurance companies to do their thing, meanwhile i am out a car. I have always wondered about the liability the auto manufacturer has regarding airbags. My uncle in Michigan hit a deer with his brand new two week old caddy, totaled the car and NO airbags went off ???
lexmarkz00
Well-Known LVC Member
Call one of those accident attorneys and find out.
I just got off the phone and supposedly the newer style dodges have their airbag sensors located very low. The front bumper has a sharp angle so when they get into accidents the front end dips thus not allowing the airbag sensor to be triggered. Same thing happened to my parents Neon, no airbags went off. Seems pretty shady. The Intrepid is not a small car yet there was red paint smudge about 1 ft up on our hood which meant the other ladies little nissan sentra was higher up. As far as the airbag going off after the fact, thats kinda strange. The trooper says it actually happens more often than you'd think. Told me a few stories of people getting f*cked up from a late deployed airbag. Now i know that i always seem extreme in regards to other peoples driving habits, but here in Florida its just bad. The lady was not in a sober state of mind and my wife had our son in the car. If they had been going faster it could have been alot worse. Pisses me off.
My cousin is a factory-trained BMW mechanic, and he told me that when he was in training, BMW had several delpoyed airbags on display. He remembered one in particular, which had punched a lady in the face; he said it had this perfect image of lips, rouge, and eye shadow...
This reminds me of that Arby's commercial...
It starts off as some Sentra trying to parallel park, and he pulls in the space going like 20 mph hits the car in front, puts it in reverse, nails the gas, hits the car behind it and pulls staright forward. The guy instructor gets out and the Arby's Halo was over his head, and he leans in the window and say "YOu PASSED!" And the Nerdy kid barely gets out "ALL right!" and the airbag hits him in the face. I laughed the first time I saw it actually.
It starts off as some Sentra trying to parallel park, and he pulls in the space going like 20 mph hits the car in front, puts it in reverse, nails the gas, hits the car behind it and pulls staright forward. The guy instructor gets out and the Arby's Halo was over his head, and he leans in the window and say "YOu PASSED!" And the Nerdy kid barely gets out "ALL right!" and the airbag hits him in the face. I laughed the first time I saw it actually.
Well, as the events have unfolded i have a few attorney's working on some stuff for me. Supposedly this isnt Chryslers first incident regarding this sort of thing. As it turns out, the Dodge dealer i bought the car from said 10 mph is the trigger point for the airbag sensors. The car got hit square in the front at around 30 mph and should have gone off. Its product liability and Chrysler is responsible for its safety equipment malfuctioning. I just had it serviced about 3-4 weeks ago at a dealership so atleast there is a record that there were no previous issues. My attorney has advised me not to have either insurance touch the car until this gets resolved. I was on the phone all day today talking to numerous people about this, including Chrysler's corporate office. They are sending someone next wednesday to inspect the car. It seems you mention attorney and they jump into action. My wife now has the usual whiplash symptoms which is expected, going to the doctor tomorrow. I talked to a friend who said a guy he knew had a Ford that this happened to and guess what the result was...new car. Kind of a hush up kinda thing. Throw me a new Hemi and i could quite possibly forgive them. We'll see.
2001LS8Sport
Dedicated LVC Member
I know that these new airbags are very sophisticated in their determination of whether or not they deploy. I can promise you that the 10 mph rule you were given was not true. It COULD deploy then, but there are other factors taken into account such as the weight of the driver, etc. If you're wife suffered damage due to non-deployment, I would be concerned. But if her injuries were a result of other factors, I would bet you don't have much to stand on. I promise you...Chrysler's engineers and attorneys know a lot more about this than your attorney does. I guess what I'm saying is don't jump into this with both feet and spend a bunch of money without knowing the whole story the best you can.
I took a huge sigh of release when you mentioned your child wasn't hurt. Thank God for that. I only hope your wife is ok too. I have to admit...if it were my family that was hit by a drunk, I'm not so sure I wouldn't go after them with everything I had. Spend your money on an attorney to go after her...not Chrysler. One thing about it....I'll bet she is looking at jail time....and that's a damn good thing. My thoughts are with your family. Good luck!
I took a huge sigh of release when you mentioned your child wasn't hurt. Thank God for that. I only hope your wife is ok too. I have to admit...if it were my family that was hit by a drunk, I'm not so sure I wouldn't go after them with everything I had. Spend your money on an attorney to go after her...not Chrysler. One thing about it....I'll bet she is looking at jail time....and that's a damn good thing. My thoughts are with your family. Good luck!
daves2000ls
Dedicated LVC Member
yeah, the new charger R/T might suffice, your son was in the back im guessing
I have done ALOT of research recently about airbags. It is way more complex than just saying "10 mph" will do it, angles...deceleration...all kinda of variables. The facts regarding this though are that my wife was driving atleast 30 mph and the other lady around 30ish. They were coming at each other on a straight road, at the very last possible second about 8 ft from my wife this lady attempts to turn left in front of her. My wife had little to no reaction to this and both cars collided without any skidmarks or braking, thats a pretty hard collision. The lady was driving a '95 Nissan sentra which was all cracked up, both her airbags deployed by getting hit right in the passenger headlight area. Ours didnt go off and our car got hit square in the front. It was hard enough that there is structure/frame damage up front..radiator and trans cooler got crunched back, hood is bent. And the whole attorney thing isnt because i wanna sue sue sue, its just to get a fair deal here. All the attorneys want to hear is injuries, which the wife is fine, she was a good girl wearing her seatbelt. The little guy in the back was strapped into his seat and actually loved the experience...firetrucks, police cars. It turns out the insurance info for the other lady was bad, she had no active policy. There are three sets of people all trying to get the lowdown on this woman. I am likely stuck paying the $500 deductible myself and have my insurance company and attorney go after her. But i'm still not done with Chrysler.
Oh yeah, one more thing. Because all this BS has my wifes car bogged down i rented a car for a week. I ordered a "premium" car and they gave me a KIA Amanti. At first i was like WTF ?? But i'll tell you, its a pretty decent/nice car. The one i have has all kinds of stuff, more than the LS. 10 airbags, nicer quality looking interior, and little things...mirrors tilt in reverse, 5 spd auto shift(sst)...yep, five, seat heating has five levels rather than just off or on. I still wouldnt buy one but its a nice car. Has a generic Benz look.
A nice car it may be, but a Kia isn't a "premium car," period. No way, no how.Fla02LS said:
It may have nicer features than a 1st gen LS, but I have a hard time believing it's a match for an '03+ LS. Who cares about five levels of heating when you can have heating and cooling (yes, actual cooling, not just cheesy ventilation) that can be tied into the EATC (or three levels of each if you don't)?