Airbag failure to deploy

[Bang Bang]

jshore previously said:

Hi - thanks for the kind thoughts.

I was figuring if I contact Toyota, they'll forward it to their lawyers and they'll go silent on me.

The part I'm struggling with, is if I go to buy a 2009/2010, is there a way I can find out if the airbags will work, or do you know if there's been a problem like this with FJ Cruisers?

Thanks!

Toledo FJ previously said:

I wrecked recently from a blowout. Nothing like what you experienced, but impact hard enough to break three cross members at the welds. I went from 20-25 to 0 in an instant. Nothing went off with mine. Not even the seat belt charge.

Without injury, I doubt you'll have much success with a lawsuit. Are you going to sue because you might have gotten hurt? I don't think it works like that, but I'm not a lawyer.

Did your seat belt charge go off at least? I see very bad whiplash in your immediate future.

Glad you weren't hurt. That looks bad.

First, to the OP, that looks nasty but you WALKED away, right? You didn't need to be carted off in an ambulance or flown out on LifeFlight, right? Then why are you worried about Toyota and their lawyers going silent? From the picture you provided, it looks like the truck did what it was supposed to do: absorb the impact and keep the occupants alive. Maybe the airbags should have gone off, I don't know. I would think they should have but you will never know what may have happened if they had. What if the computer or some of the wiring was damaged in the initial collision? What if the airbags had deployed and broken your nose and burned your forearms? Would you feel better about the accident?

Don't get me wrong, I am not bashing you. I just think that in this lawsuit happy world we live in we sometimes need to step back and look at the big picture. If you are seriously considering buying another FJ I would think you would want to let Toyota crawl all over this one so they can figure out if it was indeed a failure that can be fixed.

BTW, how long ago did the accident happen?

Once again, glad you walked away from this.

[DEWFPO]

The airbags are controlled by decelerometers in the front of the vehicle. If the ignition key was on and the deceleration met or exceeded the design criteria, they should have gone off even if the vehicle was stopped. It is possible the hit from the semi was mitigated somewhat by the fact that you may have been rolling away from the oncoming semi (even though you were turned around) and the crumple zones absorbed enough of the impact for it to be below the airbag setoff points. Just guessing here.

DEWFPO