Major accident; airbags didn't deploy
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Feb 2014
Posts: 6,190
Likes: 1,550
From: MA
2008 E350 4Matic, 2011 E350 4matic
I believe airbags deploy when the impact speed is between 8-14mph. Bumpers are pretty weak these days, used to be 5 mph but now they just need to meet a 2.5 mph spec before damage occurs. You can have an expert check to see if the sensors should have deployed the airbags. I believe there's two sensors that have to trip in order for the airbags to go off. It doesn't sound like your injuries are that severe making me think that the impact speed was less than you think and hence wasn't enough to trigger the airbag. MB does have systems like pre-safe which maximizes braking in certain conditions.
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2017
Posts: 377
Likes: 98
From: Savannah, GA
2010 W212 E550 4matic
If you were doing 140kph you should be writing this from heaven or hell right now.
Also, in some european countries there's a very interesting practice of glueing together a car from two wrecked ones and calling it a good working vehicle . I've seen that in Germany ( tried to buy a 2011 Phaeton from some turkish run dealership and upon a detailed inspection we realised it was welded right before the firewall where the front rails connect to the rest of the chassis) and have been wary of buying second hand cars from shady characters.
Unless you bought the car new there's a good chance some previous owner messed with some essential features in it, if so, those are the people you should seek compensation from. There is no chance Mercedes would ever allow such a defect to exist in one of their cars ( there are a plethora of redundancies to make sure you car will let you know if there's something wrong with it's airbag systems), so unless you were purposefully ignoring the beeps and chirps and dash lights, your car's airbag systems were either disabled by a criminal hand or you weren't going fast enough to warrant deployment.
Also, in some european countries there's a very interesting practice of glueing together a car from two wrecked ones and calling it a good working vehicle . I've seen that in Germany ( tried to buy a 2011 Phaeton from some turkish run dealership and upon a detailed inspection we realised it was welded right before the firewall where the front rails connect to the rest of the chassis) and have been wary of buying second hand cars from shady characters.
Unless you bought the car new there's a good chance some previous owner messed with some essential features in it, if so, those are the people you should seek compensation from. There is no chance Mercedes would ever allow such a defect to exist in one of their cars ( there are a plethora of redundancies to make sure you car will let you know if there's something wrong with it's airbag systems), so unless you were purposefully ignoring the beeps and chirps and dash lights, your car's airbag systems were either disabled by a criminal hand or you weren't going fast enough to warrant deployment.
