How Does an Airbag Work?

As I was driving through Athens this past weekend I happened upon an accident scene where a lady who looked to be in her 80's had just wrecked her car into a telephone pole. There were several people already on the scene and an ambulance from the hospital located just down the street was approaching in my rear view mirror. As I pulled over to let them by, I was able to see that she was speaking with a woman there to help, and appeared confused but unhurt. Her BMW though was quite damaged. I could not tell from the scene what had happened, but the right front of her car was totally folded under and it looked like the passenger side wheel was almost totally torn off.

What I was impressed by was that every section of the entire car had deployed an air bag. Drivers side, passenger side and both sides front and rear doors were covered by air bags. She was the only occupant, but the car had automatically attempted to protect everyone who may have been in the car. I had to imagine how badly the woman may have been hurt in the past without that type of safety equipment.

Today's post is to share some information with our customers on how the technology works. It is really quite amazing, and probably should be part of your decision making process when replacing your car. More protection is better, and the newer the car, the more likely it will have the side restraint airbags. Obviously the picture above is just an attention getter, not an aftermarket airbag...

How does an airbag work?

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