1996 Cadillac DeVille Owner's Manual - Page 39

When should an air bag inflate? The air bag is designed inflate in moderate to severe to frontal or near-frontal crashes.The air bag will inflate only if the impact speed is above system's designed the "threshold level."If your vehicle goes straight into a wall that doesn't moveor deform, the threshold level is about 9 to 15 mph (14 to 24 km/h). The threshold level so can vary, however, withspecific vehicle design, that it canbe somewhat above or below this range. If your or vehicle strikes something that will move deform, such as a parked car, the threshold level will be higher. The air bag is not designed to inflate in rollovers, side impacts or rear impacts, because inflation would not help the occupant. In any particularcrash, no one can say whether an air bag should have inflated simply because the damage of to a vehicleor because of what the repair costs were. . Inflation is determined by the angle of the impact and the vehicle's deceleration. Vehicle damage is only one indication of this. What makes an air bag inflate? In a frontal or near-frontal impact of sufficient severity, the air bag sensing system detects that the vehicle is a suddenly stopping as result of a crash. The sensing system triggers a chemical reaction the sodium azide of sealed in the inflator. The reaction produces nitrogen gas, which inflates the air bag. The inflator, air bag and related hardware are all of the air bag modules part packed inside the steering wheel and in the instrument panel in front of the right front passenger. How does an air bag restrain? In moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal collisions, or even belted occupants can contact the steering wheel the instrument panel. The air bag supplements the, protection provided by safety belts.Air bags distribute the the force of the impact more evenly over occupant's upper body, stopping the occupant more gradually. But air bags would not help you in many types of collisions, including rollovers, rear impacts and side impacts, primarily because an occupant's motion is not towardthe air bag. Air bags should neverbe regarded as anything more than a supplement to safety belts, and then only in moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal collisions.