AcftEngr

Been a member for a short while. Lost control and hit a tree about 10 days ago. I have contacted MB to find out why the air bags did not deploy. I'll keep you posted on whether MB give me some type of reading on the air bag system. We are all recovering (5)!

JRAMGV8

Sorry to hear about your accident, but I'm glad you and everyone are ok. I can't believe those airbags did not deploy....

MB>BMW

hope your ok, isnt there a button on the inside that turns the airbags on and off??? or maybe its just a sensor for when your first turn it on.

glad you survived, what a crash

lxl_Jeffro_lxl

That is amazing that the airbargs didn't deploy....hopefully you will find the problem and they will be used if there ever is a crash in the future, although i hope there isnt. Just wondering, are you paying for the whole new front end of the car? just going to scrap it? or part it out? You don't need to answer that but I was just wondering because that (seems to me) is going to be a costly expense. If you are going to part it out, dibs on blinker mirrors

lexrex

Got any pictures of the tree?

StephenK

Were you wearing your seat belts?? Airbags won't deploy if you are not wearing them.

Sorry to see and hear about your accident.

JRAMGV8

[quote=StephenK;2135816]Were you wearing your seat belts?? Airbags won't deploy if you are not wearing them.
[quote]

Hmmm that's interesting. Even though you should wear seat belts but I thought air bags should deploy no matter.

StephenK

This was discussed elsewhere on the forum and I was amazed about the airbags not deploying without the seatbelts. I used to not wear mine and felt I had a lot of other protections in the car. Now I wear it every single time.

Esleeper

Interesting.

I have never heard that the airbags will not deploy if you are not wearing seatbelts.??? Can someone confirm?

Anyway, sorry to see and hear about the crash. Did you buy the car used? I have heard of unscrupulous auto repair shops that will put a car back together with out a lot of parts including non working sensors and non working airbags.

my E430 rocket

tree=1.....sry...

sorry for the loss of your car, but be glade everyone made it out alright!

AcftEngr

Thanks for all your comments. Just to answer a few questions:
I have contacted MB. They are receiving pictures and will investigate (either in person or by photos). All the passengers and driver (me!!) were wearing seat belts. Most of our injuries were from the seat belts. My oldest daughter suffered internal injuries....mostly due to the lap portion of the belt.

At first I was disappointed in the car.....now, I am thankful that we were able to "walk away"....after surgery, etc. But it could have been worse!! I was surprised how much damage is on the center console area of the car. My cell phone was in the open pocket and I had to search through wires/cables to find it (see attached picture). Note the steering wheel angle...my right thumb was injured. Also the headlight units left the car upon impact!!

Right now the insurance company has moved the car to their holding lot. I assume they will total the car and take possession of it for salvage. I will probably not have anything to do with the parts, etc.

Unfortunately I am very leery of another E320? My car had only 45K miles. I have some time to consider another car but am interested what MB is going to say??

StephenK

Do you have TELE-AID, if so curious if it activated after your accident.

Lancelot

Very sorry to hear about this all, glad you came out of it allright in the end, highly interested to hear what MB has to say about it finally...

Star420

This is bad news for MB, why air bags did not deploy?? I am not too happy with MB recent quality.

I have seen on Ford taurus that air bags did not deploy, but never thought in MB you will see this probelm.

At what speed this accident happen??

JRAMGV8

Yeah those airbags did not deploy on impact. This is serious and not good for Mercedes Benz.

Star420

AcftEngr, you should take MB to court.

I am assuming you have been getting your W210 service at Stealer. If yes then you have good case.

Fualty airbags is crime, it can kill someone. Don't let MB to get out of it.

PJudd

I concur. You need to contact a lawyer. Surgery and internal injuries is serious. MB is liable. You could potentially take MB to the bank and walk away with a new S550. At least talk to a lawyer, and let us know what he says. Good Luck!

-Judd

AcftEngr

We were traveling 65 - 70 MPH on an interstate. I did not have the cruise on...I was slowing due to the area being wet...after a rain. My car had approx 50K miles and had been dealer maintained prior to my purchasing it late last year.

It is not easy to get anything out of MB. I would have to prove that the injuries would be less if the air bags deployed...and to what level. My daughter, that was the most seriously injured, was in the back passenger side ($250K medical..awaiting the bills!). I don't think she has any additional protection with an airbag?? The front passengers had knee, ankle, shoulder injures. That may have been lessened with air bags (just my opinion).

Just want to make one point - The car did what it was suppose to do structurally...it had to absorb a great deal of energy in order to lessen the impact on the occupants. As you can see from the first picture, the front end gave way and crumpled. The rest of the energy that it could not absorb threw us back 10 - 15 ft from the base of the tree! The roof was buckled. The structural interior of the car was primarily intact. I mean it held together to protect. I can't say I am totally disappointed in MB. Only that the airbag system is suppose to deploy to protect the occupants. Someone out there in internet land may be faced with a head-on/front collision where they NEED the protection and it not be working (or whatever else went wrong).

lkchris

This is a ridiculous statement.

Those of us old enough to remember the first airbags recall that their first purpose was to protect those that didn't wear seatbelts. For a while a legal alternative was a self-applying seat belt.

In addition, such a system configuration would expose a manufacturer to all kinds of liability it could easily avoid.

Aircraft Engineer probably knows that if he contemplates legal action, he should retain possession of the car and be able to document its whereabouts until inspection and when inspected should have various witnesses present. Finding disconnected wiring, for example, could hurt his case, but he should prevent it from happening after the accident by, for example, a dishonest mechanic.

Lancelot

One remark; in my manual it says that the airbags will NOT deploy at a crash speed below 30kph (I dunno what that is in Miles) so if you had been slamming the brakes for a few seconds before inpact that might be the reason!? I've been in a tree collision once with a different car (on icy roads) and hit the tree almost in slow-motion but the damage to the front was considerable. Engine dislocated etc. Trees don't give way for even an inch...

Franasia

Sorry about the accident.

I recently had to call Mercedes Roadside Assitance for a dead battery and they installed a brand new one. After going through the whole routine of resetting windows, radio code and what have you, it caught my attention the tech had the steering reset also.

He explained to me if this is not done - which is turning the steering left and right to full lock a couple of times – the vehicle does not know in which direction it’s going, and this could cause the front airbgs not to deploy.

I wonder if anybody here ever heard about this. BTW, this technician sounded very knowledgeable to me and truly a Mercedes enthusiast.

Hope it helps.

PJudd

Again, sorry about your accident and the pain and suffering your family is going through.

With that said, would you be interested in selling me your side skirts and rear bumper when you are feeling up to it?



-Judd

AcftEngr

I was notified by my insurance company that on Monday (this week) someone from MB has asked for permission to see the car??

Huachipato

I know in many cars the airbags are designed to be used with the seatbelts. Hence - SRS is what most cars Manufacturers use to label the airbags. Notice that the first "S" stands for "Supplemental".

In any case, that is not the issue presented in this thread as the seatbelts were used.

I'm glad to hear that the other safety features (crumple zones and cabin integrity) of the vehicle worked well together keep everyone alive. As everyone else, I'm baffled and curious on why they airbags did not deploy as well.

I have read of MB wanting to see real world wrecked cars to see what worked and what can be improved.

lxl_Jeffro_lxl

18.6 mph