1998 Chevrolet Prizm Owner's Manual - Page 40

When should an air bag inflate? The driver's and rightfront passenger's frontal air bags are designed to inflate in moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal crashes. The frontal air bags are designed to inflate only if the impact speed is above the system's designed "threshold level." If your vehicle goes straight into a wall thatdoesn't move or deform, the threshold level is about 11 to 15 mph (18 to 24 km/h). The threshold level can vary, however, with specific vehicle design, so that it can be somewhat above or below this range. If your vehicle strikes something that will move or deform, such as a parked car, the threshold level will be higher. The driver's and right front passenger's frontal air bags are not designed to inflate in rollovers, side impacts, or rear impacts, because inflation would not help the occupant. The driver's andright front passenger's side impact air bags are designed to inflate in moderate tosevere side crashes involving a front door. A side impact air bag will inflate if the crash severity is above the system's designed "threshold level.'' threshold level can vary The with specific vehicle design. Side impact air bags are not designed to inflate in frontal or near-frontal impacts, rollovers or rear impacts, because inflation would not help the occupant. A side impact air bag will only deploy on the side of the vehicle that is struck. It ispossible that, in a crash involving the front of your vehicle, only one of the two frontal air bags in your vehicle will deploy. This is rare, but it can happen in acrash just severe enough to make a frontal air bag inflate. In any particularcrash, no onecan say whether an air bag should have inflated simply because ofthe damage to a vehicleor because of what the repair costs were. For frontal air bags, inflation is determined by the angle of the impact and how quickly vehicle the slows down in frontal and near-frontal impacts. For side impact air bags, inflation is determined bythe location of theimpact and how quickly the side of the vehicle deforms. What makes an air bag inflate? In an impact of sufficient severity, air bag sensing the system detects that the vehicle is in a crash.For both frontal and side impact air bags, the sensingsystem triggers a release of gas from the inflator, whichinflates the air bag. The inflator, air bag and related hardware are all part of the air bag modules inside thesteering wheel, instrument panel and the of thefront side seatbacks closest to the door. 1-26