Mercedes Benz Exposed: Airbags Failed To Deploy in S-Class Crash

[killing_car]

On 12.11.2011, my brother, Nirmal Saraf, was driving a Mercedes S-class (claimed to be one of the most safest cars of the world), from Jaipur to Agra alone during the day. At about 12 o’clock, he met with an accident. A truck moving parallel to his car, took a sudden turn due which he had to apply sudden brakes. Unfortunately he hit the truck from the driver’s side. Due to the collision the rod, which holds the windscreen of the car broke and hit Nirmal near the shoulder, which caused him to loose control of the car. The car hit a few kiosks on the roadside. People nearby had to cut the seat belt and somehow managed to get him out of the car and an ambulance was called to take him to the hospital. But unfortunately the doctors couldn’t save my brother’s precious life. Even after such a big collision only one airbag opened of the Mercedes S-class and that too of the passenger’s side (left side) where as the car was hit on the driver’s side. Mercedes claims that ‘SAFETY’ is their utmost priority, and that they have provided 8 airbags in their S-class. Then why after such a big collision only one airbag opened and that too of left side where there was no major hit? Is selling the car more important than ensuring the security of it? We do not know what the ‘S’ in the name S-Class stand for, but its definitely not SAFETY.

Mercedes Exposed - Facebook

 

[killing_car]

Re: mercedes exposed

 

[truecitylover]

Re: mercedes exposed

Welcome to TAI killing_car (I hope the reason behind your TAI handle is Merc S class).
Sorry to hear about your loss. I am not a major automobile buff to comment on the safety of Merc.

RIP Nirmal Saraf!

 

[THE XOVER]

Re: mercedes exposed

RIP Nirmal.

What a shame that even a car like S Class couldn't stand for safety of its occupant,shame on you Mercedise Benz.My deepest condolences are with family of Nirmal.

 

[killing_car]

Re: mercedes exposed

Technical fault in Mercedes causes man's death - YouTube

 

[drifter]

Re: mercedes exposed

I am sorry to hear this loss.

No car has got infinitive safety. Unfortunately at speeds with an impact of more than 65kph the likelyhood of surviving the crash is diminishing in any car.

The r4eason why only one airbag went off might be because the other seat was unoccupied.

Modern airbags are going of in 2 stages, where at softer impact only the weaker cartridge goes off and in harder impacts the second one.

The other airbags should not go off under these circumstances as they can do then more bad than good.

From what you describe the safety cell can't provide enough safety as the sides of the car can't slow down the deceleration enough to prevent the internal organ damage.

Additionally the helpers did the worst thing they could do. Never take an injured person out of a car when not trained to do so unless the car is in process of catching fire. This has killed many a people. Just make sure that they can breath when conscious.

BTW, I am not defending Mercedes here. I am one of the biggest anti fan of Mercedes.

 

[TSIVipul]

Re: mercedes exposed

Well,may the Nirmal R.I.P.
Rest about Mercedes Benz,no comments.Already decided to lease one and will definitely do it.

 

[Surfer]

Sorry to hear this loss, RIP your brother. Already read about this on net and also forwarded entire story to my circle. Hope Mercedes will take this positively and act upon it asap.

 

[dodge_v1per]

sad news man..RIP nirmal and condolences to family. whats merc take on this??

 

[drifter]

Already read about this on net and also forwarded entire story to my circle. Hope Mercedes will take this positively and act upon it asap.

What are they supposed to act on?

The Star news video is a load of rubbish. The airbag in the steering column correctly did not deploy. The steering column airbag is not supposed to go off in a side impact.

Also it needs to be understood that an airbag is only an aid to soften the deceleration of the human body.

Also the claim that the a-pillar broke from the impact with the truck is not correct. It was shredded.

There is much more to this accident than meets the eye.

I find it rather appalling that media are capitalising on a persons unfortunate death.

 

[mukeshus]

My heart felt condolences to loss of your brother Nirmal, it's so saddening after wearing a seat belt.
And having all the safety measures, it could not save your brother.

May his soul Rest in Peace.

 

[raj_5004]

RIP Nirmal & heartfelt condolences to the family.

But again, i second drifter's thoughts.

1) There is do damage to the car's bonnet, so it is a no brainer that the driver airbag would not open.

2) Even the side doors seem to be intact, hence the curtain airbags did not deploy.

3) The only damage is to the roof & to the A pillar, which has later been cut open in the rescue attempt.

This is a one off & rare accident where there has been no damage to the bonnet, doors or anywhere except the roof & A pillar, maybe that is the reason the airbags did not deploy. I can understand the family's sentiments but the media should have some moral understandings. I would say, unless a thorough investigation is done, Benz cannot be completely blamed in this case.

 

[EnfieldRyder]

My heartfelt condolences to the family for their loss

I would however like to know from my personal point of view, how did the Airbag on the co-driver side got deployed? since there is no damage to the bonnet & the major impact was on the driver side, could there be a chance that sometimes in a one off car the airbag on one side (driver or co-driver) could be sensitive to minor impact? I mean a small bump at a particular location on the car near the front door might trigger the airbag to deploy? could this be a possibility that can be explored as well regarding the mystery of the airbag on the co-driver side getting deployed?

 

[drifter]

My heartfelt condolences to the family for their loss

I would however like to know from my personal point of view, how did the Airbag on the co-driver side got deployed? since there is no damage to the bonnet & the major impact was on the driver side, could there be a chance that sometimes in a one off car the airbag on one side (driver or co-driver) could be sensitive to minor impact? I mean a small bump at a particular location on the car near the front door might trigger the airbag to deploy? could this be a possibility that can be explored as well regarding the mystery of the airbag on the co-driver side getting deployed?

It is difficult to see which of the passenger airbags it is. The drivers curtain airbag can be seen to, which might have been deployed or just torn apart in the impact.

This accident is a very unusual accident. Whatever the stall/object it hit the top of the car in a rather small area. As it is very rarely that cars hit objects that are not motor vehicles and even rarer that the (main) impact is above the bonnet line.

In 'normal' accidents a truck or a car or even a wall will hit the extremities of the chassis, which is below the window line. The crumple zone of the chassis and the airbag soften the extreme deceleration, which was not possible in this kind of impact.

Since the roof section and the a and b pillars have been badly affected it is possible that the airbags went of by a short circuit during shearing at impact.

From other pictures on the net it seems that the driver collided with something solid after this has ripped the top section open. This might be the reason for the blood stains on the doors and b pillar.

Unfortunately object intrusion can't be avoided as we have seen in Robert Kubica's case who escaped death by a narrow margin in his rally accident.

 

[cooldhaya]

Yes i have been following this piece of news for sometime. My condolences to the family.

I would not blame Mercedes entirely though. The thread starter has mentioned only passenger airbag has deployed but looking at the pictures the curtain airbags has also been deployed. But why the driver airbag din't function is the million dollar question! It can be guessed that since frontal impact is minimum driver airbag din't come but why passenger airbag deployed then!


Nothing can be clearly said till further investigations are carried out , looks like a high-speed crash in first place. But being in a one crore car doesn't mean you are death proof , still all lies in the hands of the driver. I am not saying the driver drove rashly but still in an accident it all boils down to luck , you never know which direction your car is going to take after an impact!

I will follow this news keenly.