Toyota Aqua Air Bag deployment failure

[Rushdhi]

On Jan 1 2018 between 1745 and 1815 hours, I was driving my car ( Toyota Aqua 2014) at a speed of 30 – 35km per hour along the main road (Manning Place in Colombo 6) with the safety belt fastened. While the car was moving, I leaned forward with my left hand to reach for my mobile phone which had just fallen on the floor board beside the auto gears, while my right hand was on the steering wheel. While doing so my car hit  a parked vehicle resulting in injuries to me and my wife, both  the airbags did not get deployed for some reason. The informative lights on the dash board did not indicate any malfunction prior to the accident.

Appreciate any advice, and whether I should take up the matter with Toyota

 

[Davy]

The speed at which your car collided with the parked car may have been insufficient to trigger the airbag. From what I remember, it requires a shock similar to the car hitting a solid wall at speed of approximately 25 km/h. Since you hit a parked car, it would have absorbed a bit of the shock, so the even a speed of 30 km/h might not have been sufficient. 

If your car wasn't written off (knowing Sri Lanka, it would definitely be repaired), get the airbag system checked out once the repair is done. Get the diagnosis done at the agent. 

[iRage]

Sorry to hear about your accident and about the injuries. I guess there is a lesson to be learnt there at the very least. 

Typically there is a speed threshold for the airbags to deploy (for example the car may have to be travelling around 25-30 kmph and hit a stationary object of similar size for the airbags to deploy). So perhaps you were driving slower than you think you were or hit something smaller which in fact didn't give enough opposing force (i.e. the stationary car moved forward absorbing the hit so the airbag sensors didn't hit the required threshold to deploy the airbags ?)

Also, it depends on where the car got hit (like where exactly was the point of impact in the car ?)

Or it just might have been that there was something actually wrong in the system including the warning lights not working (I once came across a car which had a faulty ABS modulator but the light didn't show up...in fact there was not even a bulb...if you know what I am getting at)  

[Rushdhi]

Both cars got hit on the front right side (all that area upto the front right side door)