air bags

my wife was broadsided on the passenger side of her Sante Fe (03 or 04 I forget which) by an idiot running a stop sign. My question is: why didn't the air bag deploy? Is there a sensor that detected that no one was sitting in the passenger seat, or was it faulty? ...the car was totalled.

Don

 

Front airbags only deploy on frontal impact. Otherwise its like getting
in a wreck and getting slapped for no reason all at once...

If it has side impact bags, thats definetly worthy of investigation...

JS

 

Yes, it has side impact bags.

Don

 

My '05 SF has a sensor that will stop the passenger-side air bag from
deploying if it doesn't sense at least 40 pounds of weight in the seat. A
small lighted message appears on the dash that reads 'passenger side airbag
disabled'.

Jon

 

My freind in S Carolina is in the hospital in a coma. He was broadsided by
a truck and the rh side bags did not deploy.

 

Model and year. please.
Hope he survives and recovers quickly.
Seamus J. Wilson

 

thats awful to hear, was he in the passenger seat?maybye wassnt enough force
to trigger the air bags, i hope he had his seat belt on.
hope he makes a full recovery

 

Sorry to hear about your friend. I hope he makes a full recovery. It's
difficult to say why the side airbags didn't deploy without seeing photos of
the car. I would say it most likely didn't meet the threshold to deploy the
airbags. Unfortunately, even with side airbags an impact in that area can
easily result in serious injury. There are only side airbags for the front
seats, they don't offer head protection yet unless it is an 06 Sonata with
curtain airbags. The Accent & Elantra have had side airbags in the front
seats since 01 so I'm assuming it was probably one of those models? Those
models do not have airbags for rear seat occupants.