One thing you might want to consider is if the airbag was even hooked up/plugged in.

About 10 years ago, one of my good friend's mother was killed in a car wreck. She was wearing her seatbelt and the airbag didn't go off.

Upon investigation, the airbag wasn't plugged in. His father and him both still have jobs and work insane hours, but I'll tell you one thing.... they don't have to.

The settlement was over $10 million. I decline to mention what brand vehicle she was driving.

Just somthing to think about... maybe worth a look.

 

he lived...the truck did its job. and if he had his seatbelt on he may not have been hurt at all. i see nothing wrong other then your frinds own stupidity.

 

Ford didnt plant a tree infront of your friend while he was driving. They are not at fault, he did not wear a seatbelt, which was his first problem. If he was he would be in better shape. Also, had the air bag gone off, he would have smashed into it and probably still flown over it, hurting himself much worse. Tell your friend to watch out for inatimate objects and buckle up.

 

1. I was in a full frontal collision with my 97 F-150 in the Spring of 1998. I nailed that Mustang going a solid 30 mph while I was shifting to 2nd gear. The airbag didn't go off. And the only damage to my truck was a bent license. the Mustang got towed away for scrap

Your friend wasn't going fast enough for the airbag to deploy, or he hit the tree in such a fashion as the vehicle didn't register a FRONTAL impact. Can you post pictures of the truck? I'll bet the damage is limited to 1 side of the front end and could more appropriately be called a side impact.


2. It is against site rules to go around discussing things of a Legal Nature. It is not Fords fault your friend tried to impersonate a stuntman. Should have worn a seat belt. Maybe the tree has grounds for a suit against him. It is innocent after all.

3. Airbags are meant to coincide with seat belt use. They won't necessarily prevent body ejection. They're only function is to prevent the rapid head snap forward that occurs on the sudden/rapid deceleration. Think of them as a pillow to soften the blow of your head hitting the steering wheel


edit: reread my post and realized I'm coming off a bit harsh...sorry, hate to see legal mumbo jumbo

 

Either way, basically it comes down to this: If had his seatbelt on, which are effective otherwise they wouldn't be mandatory, would he still have been thrown into the window? If the airbag deplyoed, would it have stopped a 250lb man not wearing a seatbelt from hitting the window? Who said the speed was 25mph? Sounds worse than if it were 25 MPH. He's still alive, he should consider it lesson learned.

 

i wonder if thumps air bags went off..

 

Can't help but wonder what kind of a car that was. I've worked on air bags (and have replaced many) and have never seen a system that would not give you an air bag light if there was anything amiss with the system- especially if it was not plugged in. If she was driving a car with an air bag light shining in her face and ignoring it or not even noticing it- whose fault was it? Not saying that was the case- I wasn't there- but people do those things and then look around for someone else to blame (or sue) You wouldn't believe the things I've seen over the years working on cars!

 

I absolutely agree Quintin- different car manufacturers have different theories as to how their system should operate and under what circumstances
the air bags should deploy (sometimes rather widely differing) and even with a given manufacturer they change that theory (and hence the operation) more often than you would think. I have seen air bags deploy and not deploy under almost every imaginable circumstance- many times it wasn't easy to reason why they functioned the way they did. Having said that I would make a bet that most of the time they are functioning according to the engineers theory at the time that car was built. As Quintin said, they're SUPPLEMENTAL restraints. I saw a story many years ago about a man who was killed in his Lincoln TC when it went off the road, hit a small tree hard enough to set off the air bags. It continued on and in the course the door flew open and because he wasn't wearing a seat belt he flew part way out the door and was crushed to death when the car sideswiped a second tree. Does the family have the right to sue FMC For a faulty product- I don't think so!

 

There are 2 things here....first, airbags on newer vehicles deploy based on the rate of deceleration. If he had hit the tree dead-center on the emblem, they may have gone off, but since he hit it off center I'd have to guess it caused the truck to rotate counterclockwise which slowed the rate of deceleration enough to not warrant deployment of the airbags. As far as your buddy coming off the seat, that doesn't take a whole lot unless he's 400#

Second, I sell parts to body shops all the time. I get them returned too (which majorly sucks) becuase vehicles get totalled. The way vehicles are designed to absorb energy in a collision causes them to get totalled more easier than they used to. There can be a lot of hidden damage and stuff that's costly to repair. Insurance companies will total a vehicle when the cost to repair it reaches a percentage of the vehicle's value. Since our trucks are losing value almost as fast as some of the real estate markets (thank you, Big Oil), it's not going to take much damage to consider it totalled.

 

There are some health insureance companies that will not cover you if you are in a car accident and are not wearing your seatbelt. I guess I am not helping with the OP questions, I just wanted to put my .02 in.

 

I have to disagree, seeing as someone on our Frank Raines trip hit a big bump offroad and they deployed

 

Better safe than sorry???