Buick 2005 Rainier - Manuel (Page 57)

When Should an Airbag Inflate?
The driver’s and right front passenger’s frontal airbags
are designed to inflate in moderate to severe frontal
or near-frontal crashes. But they are designed to inflate
only if the impact exceeds a predetermined deployment
threshold. Deployment thresholds take into account
a variety of desired deployment and non-deployment
events and are used to predict how severe a crash
is likely to be in time for the airbags to inflate and help
restrain the occupants. Whether your frontal airbags
will or should deploy is not based on how fast your
vehicle is traveling. It depends largely on what you hit,
the direction of the impact and how quickly your
vehicle slows down.
In addition, your vehicle has “dual stage” frontal airbags,
which adjust the restraint according to crash severity.
Your vehicle is equipped with electronic frontal sensors,
which help the sensing system distinguish between a
moderate frontal impact and a more severe frontal
impact. For moderate frontal impacts, these airbags
inflate at a level less than full deployment. For more
severe frontal impacts, full deployment occurs. If the front
of your vehicle goes straight into a wall that does not
move or deform, the threshold level for the reduced
deployment is about 9 to 16 mph (14 to 26 km/h),
and the threshold level for a full deployment is about
18 to 25 mph (29 to 40 km/h). (The threshold level can
vary, however, with specific vehicle design, so that it can
be somewhat above or below this range.)
Airbags may inflate at different crash speeds. For
example:
• If the vehicle hits a stationary object, the airbag
could inflate at a different crash speed than if
the object were moving.
• If the object deforms, the airbag could inflate at a
different crash speed than if the object does not
deform.
• If the vehicle hits a narrow object (like a pole) the
airbag could inflate at a different crash speed
than if the vehicle hits a wide object (like a wall).
• If the vehicle goes into an object at an angle the
airbag could inflate at a different crash speed
than if the vehicle goes straight into the object.
The frontal airbags (driver and right front passenger) are
not intended to inflate during vehicle rollovers, rear
impacts, or in many side impacts because inflation
would not likely help the occupants.
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