2005 Pontiac Montana SV6 Owner's Manual - Page 93

When Should an Airbag Inflate? The driver's and right front passenger's frontal airbags are designed to inflate in moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal crashes. But they are designed to inflate only if the impact exceeds a predetermined deployment threshold. Deployment thresholds take into account a variety of desired deployment and non-deployment events and are used to predict how severe a crash is likely to be in time for the airbags to inflate and help restrain the occupants. Whether your frontal airbags will or should deploy is not based on how fast your vehicle is traveling. It depends largely on what you hit, the direction of the impact and how quickly your vehicle slows down. In addition, your vehicle has "dual stage" frontal airbags, which adjust the restraint according to crash severity. For moderate frontal impacts, these airbags inflate at a level less than full deployment. Your vehicle is equipped with electronic frontal sensors, which help the sensing system distinguish between a moderate frontal impact and a more severe frontal impact. For more severe frontal impacts, full deployment occurs. If the front of your vehicle goes straight into a wall that does not move or deform, the threshold level for the reduced deployment is about 12 to 18 mph (19 to 29 km/h), and the threshold level for a full deployment is about 18 to 24 mph (29 to 38.5 km/h). (The threshold level can vary, however, with specific vehicle design, so that it can be somewhat above or below this range.) Airbags may inflate at different crash speeds. For example: • If the vehicle hits a stationary object, the airbag could inflate at a different crash speed than if the object were moving. • If the object deforms, the airbag could inflate at a different crash speed than if the object does not deform. • If the vehicle hits a narrow object (like a pole) the airbag could inflate at a different crash speed than if the vehicle hits a wide object (like a wall). • If the vehicle goes into an object at an angle the airbag could inflate at a different crash speed than if the vehicle goes straight into the object. 1-87