Should the airbags in my granddaughter's Nissan Juke have gone off?

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Should the airbags in my granddaughter's Nissan Juke have gone off?

My granddaughter has a 3-month-old Nissan Juke and last weekend she approached a T-junction, did not see it, went straight over the T, up a bank and through a six foot high dry stone wall (don't ask!). Should the airbags have deployed? They did not, but luckily no-one was hurt. What does it take for the bags to deploy? I would have thought a bang significantly less than the one she sustained. Can these be checked without having them set off?

Asked on 14 September 2013 by JD, Orpington

Answered by Honest John

Depends on the type of impact. But airbags are never guaranteed to deploy because it depends on the sensitivity of the trigger mechanism. Too sensitive they would go off on road humps and potholes. Not sensitive enough and you could go through a dry stone wall and they didn't go off. But basically, if she wasn't injured then they did their job. They did not go off when they did not need to.

Tags: accidents safety airbags

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