In a bizarre incident in Kerala, a Toyota Etios being driven by one named Mr. Anil Nair has been at the receiving end when the airbags installed in his car failed to deploy during crash on Ernakulam-Alleppey highway. As evident in pictures, the vehicle has taken a strong hit that has left Mr. Nair with serious injuries, whereas his co-passenger required hospitalization for about 2 weeks.
Post the incident Mr. Nair had contacted his Toyota dealer and questioned as to why did the airbags did not perform as expected, to which the dealer reverted with a bizarre answer stating, “It's because you did not collide properly.” Such an answer can indeed be frustrating, and Mr. Nair shot back stating, “Then how must I collide for the airbags to function properly? How can I trust this vehicle again? I hope they will train people to bang their cars right in order to ensure that the airbags are deployed.”
The statement released by the company in this regard states that, “The Supplement Restrain System (SRS) Driver and Passenger Airbags are technically tuned for the deployment under certain conditions only. For example, SRS Driver and Passenger Airbags will deploy, if a car with a minimum speed of 20 – 30 km / hr crashes against a stable wall from front or an angle of 30 degree from left or right side. Deployment of Driver side SRS Airbag protects the driver wearing the seatbelt from hitting hard against the steering wheel and getting injured when front collision happens. And deployment of Passenger side SRS Airbag prevents the passenger wearing the seat belt from diving against dashboard and getting hurt when front collision happens. However, in case of side and rear collisions, the front driver and passenger SRS Airbags do not deploy.”
Going forward, Toyota has also denied such statement being made by its dealer. The company states that, in this particular case the vehicle LH side hit another SUV. During collision a large part of the impact was absorbed by the SUV. So here, the collision did not meet the prerequisite to warrant an airbag deployment. The sensors attached to the car body measures the impact responses and transmit them as signals to a central control unit. This unit compares the gathered data to pre-programmed information and decides whether deployment is required. If deployment criteria is met, an electrical signal is sent to the inflater unit which ignites the propellants. However, if the criteria is not met, the airbags do not deploy. To avoid injury, airbags do not deploy under all situations and only open when it is indeed required. Toyota Kirloskar Motors has been in touch with the customer regarding the issue to address his grievances. It is also worth noting that the company has standardized the front airbags last month, across all its trims namely - Etios, Liva and Etios Cross cars offered in the country.
Photo source: Ajit Menon
