Explosive power of airbag shows why everyone must wear a seatbelt [Video]

As per the new safety norms in India, Car manufacturers must offer safety features like dual-airbags, reverse parking sensors, seat belt reminders and ABS as standard with all variants. All the cars that are currently sold in the market follow these rules. However, we still come across accident reports where people have lost their lives. One of the recent incident that many of you might remember is of Cyrus Mistry, who was the former chairman of Tata Sons. In that accident, Cyrus Mistry and his friend were killed because they were not wearing seatbelts while sitting in the rear seats. The SUV in which they were travelling comes with curtain airbags but, even that did not save them. Most cars have SRS airbags which work together with three-pointer seat belts. This means, if you don’t wear seat belts, the functioning of the airbag might get affected. Here we have a video that how exactly does an airbag work.

The video has been uploaded by  MR. INDIAN HACKER on their YouTube channel. In this video, vlogger is doing an experiment with a car airbag to show how powerful it is and how fast does this thing get deployed. He took the airbag from the car (a Maruti in this case) and connected a piece of cable to it. This was done in order to trigger the airbag and help it deploy. After placing the airbag at a safe distance, they connect the cables to trigger the airbag. The whole thing infates in just fraction of a second. The airbag was simply kept on a bucket and there was nothing else to keep it in place. When it exploded, the airbag simply flew up in the air.

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The airbag on the steering wheel is usually placed under the hornpad and that area is made from a thin plastic material. This is done in order to ensure that the airbag can tear the piece of plastic when it explodes and  expands to protect the driver or any other occupant. An explosion happens inside the airbag that makes the airbag expand. This is a chemical reaction and the chemical used inside the airbag is called Sodium Azide. The sensor in front of the car sends electrical signals to the ignitor. The heat generated as part of the reaction causes Sodium azide to decompose into sodium metal and nitrogen gas that inflates the airbag. All this happens very quickly like we saw in the video.

This is why it is recommended to wear a seat belt when you are travelling in a car. It does not matter where you are sitting, always wear a seat belt. In some of the cars, the airbags only work when the occupant is wearing a seat belt. This is done for the occupant safety. When an airbag inflates, it force is extreme and if you are not wearing a seat belt, it can even injure you seriously. In such cars, the the airbags either don’t deploy or deploy a bit late. Both are not good for occupants.

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