Tonight our youngest managed to slide his 2012 Ram off the road and into the only tree for a 1/4 mile - head on. He hit dead centre at about 70klm. The front bumper is a perfect U. He's stiff but fine otherwise. the one thing I noticed ( got there 5 minutes after it happened......they say most accidents happen close to home....) and noticed the airbags did not expand.
The ambulance arrived, the Attendants looked in the truck and said " the airbags didn't go off", followed 2 minutes later by the Firemen and then the Cops, who also all said " how come the airbags didn't go off?"
So, anybody know why they didn't go off? The truck is bent, Z'ed and twisted. Totalled.
There has been a long time recall on passenger car airbags from Fiat/Dodge, etc.
Takata or the company that made them can't deliver.
But...I think the recall was for shrapnel that came out and hurt people.
Perhaps your airbags had been shut off to prevent serious injuries from shrapnel.
Is there any way to tell if this is the case?
Hi Dave, I'm aware of the recall ( we have an '04 Ram 4X4 P.O.S.) but I do not know what the cut-off year was ( if there was) but I'll check. I do know the bags were not shut off. Thanks for your thoughts though and you're correct, it was for plastic shrapnel.
This is the 2nd new vehicle he's had that suffered a write-off but didn't deploy the airbags upon impact. I'm starting to wonder if any of them work, lol.....I'm also starting to wonder if I should loan him any of my vehicles, lol.
if it was snowing there like it was here all day i imagine it would of been slippery. i remember that problem with the air bags going off and hurting people was big news at the time but not sure how it got resolved. didn't that company just go broke over it all and saying they were made to the manufacture's specs not their's. it might of been a good thing it didn't go off, maybe. as for loaning him any of your vehicles that's your call, lol.
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"if you are not the lead dog, the view is all the same"
There is an investigator for insurance company that can go into the airbag module and download the data from it. Dealers can’t access it. Worth looking into
I'll do a little research over Christmas, see what I can find out about troubleshooting the module, thanks Mike. I'm glad he wasn't injured badly, ( aside from his pride) but curious why it didn't deploy. You're right Shag, it may have hurt him more than the impact.
