just finished watching it on our local news...nissan was sued for having air bag deployed too close to the passenger on their previous gen altima. The spokeman from Nissan was suggesting that the victim was sitting too close to the dash and during the accident, she slammed into the dash board and then the air bag popped, which caused severe eye injury to the victim.

'94, 95 altima has 18 times higher change of getting eye injuries than other brands of vehicles.

and surprisely.....the type of air bag that have on the '94, 95 altima was also used in their maxima, i30, j30, and g20.

 

that's funny,

but would people rather have no airbag?

 

i think they would rather have the fat settlement....

Adam

 

this is good to know for the owners, only 8 years after the fact

 

I just saw that on my local news! Good for those fools!

 

I know I would rather have no airbag!

 

If wearing my seatbelt no airbag. If no wearing my seatbelt then I would rather have a busted eye than to be dead. I was watching it also kinda scary looking when you have a mike tyson punching passenger airbag.

 

Can you explain this please? I've heard from a few people (not just Maxima... many different car styles) they would disable the airbag if possible, but I just don't get it.

Why?

 

I saw that special on Dateline. Nissan is entirely at fault.

The air bag deploys right at people's eyeballs at 150 mph. 25 people are legally blind because of it. They showed the crash test and it looked like a boxing glove coming right at their face.

They fixed the problem in late 1995, but didn't bother recalling the 94's and early 95s.

 

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....92#post1264992

 

Some of the accidents were at very low speeds.....very little damage to the cars but the passengers had serious eye damage. What was really interesting was that Nissan would make statements that they could not substantiate...and would later retract. If they will not own up to defects that cause life changing injuries....how likely will they own up to paint and other "minor" quality issues?

 

There is a sue for everything in the U.S....

 

well, I think that there was not enough information in the "report" to really draw a conclusion. I think the airbags needed to be redesigned (obviously since they did just that) but I'd think that they were similar to other bags at the time.Technology changes quickly. This was 25 out of how many deployments? How many times did that bag prevent a fatal injury? Could some of the injuries been caused by other factors? position of passenger at impact, etc? I don't think they were all at very low speeds. If it was my family member w/permanent eye damage I'd be po'd and looking to blame someone. I just think that you really can't form much of an opinion based on one of these tv "news" mag pieces. I think they determine what the slant will be while they are still working on it (I think research might be an inaccurate term).

Actually I was surprised Nissan was as forthcoming as they were considering their rep and their size. Most companies I've seen on the hot seat aren't. I'd have to think perhaps problems w/other cars' air bag deployment were under reported. I wouldn't necessarily think to sue the car manufacturer if I was injured during a collision. I'd think, well my neck wasn't broken or thank God I didn't smash into the dash. But if I heard "what you don't know about your Altima could kill you . . . " I might.

I think our out of control litigous society has created a problem for itself. Big companies (and small) are all so terrified of being sued,They go into defensive-mode. We've made it more unlikely they will "do the right thing". If Nissan admits problems and issues a recall. . . how many others come out of the woodwork to sue for millions for injuries real and imagined?

Wow, and I'm an anti-big business liberal! I guess I'm fed up with frivolous lawsuits (not saying this is a frivolous issue, these people's lives were changed). I guess I'm just sick of tabloid t.v.

 

Yes a roll bar and a five-point harness would do nicely.

 

I've seen too many people get hurt from airbag deployment.

One example: A girl maneuvering in a parking lot (maybe 10-15mph, seatbelt on) hit a pole, airbag deployed, broke her nose, bust open her lip.

Second example: Friend hit a sewer cover that was raised for construction. Airbag deployed, punched him and his wife in the face. Knocked HER out! Blew the sunroof right out of the car!

Another reason is the possibility of a delayed deployment. If it deploys a fraction of a second too late, and you have already been thrown forward against the seatbelt. It can hit you harder and possibily snap your neck, as well as breaking your nose.

Another reason is the possibility of a deployment during a glancing blow. During deployment, it blows both your wrists off the steering wheel, and assuming you had a tight grip (like you probably did prior to an accident), it breaks both your wrists and limits your ability to steer and avoid a possible second impact.

Another reason is if you don't wear your seatbelt (idiot) and instead of hiting the windshield, which is somewhat flexible when shattered, you ride up the airbag and hit the ceiling, which is steel, so you die.

And we all know about child seats and airbags.

 

1) I've *never* seen an airbag test where the victim, uh, driver, wasn't completely dazed. I've also never seen an airbag test where the driver's hands weren't forced off the steering wheel.

So, if the airbag goes off, you're pretty much completely screwed in a secondary collision.

2) I'm pretty short. The steering wheel sits around 18" from my chest. I also wear glasses. I'm going to be in a world of hurt if that damn bag goes off. I never did like the idea of having an explosive charge in my steering wheel.

3) If you take out all four airbags out of my car, the price of said car would go down $1000. Let's not even talk about repair costs.

4) Let's pretend. Substitute the word 'drug' for 'airbag'. If a 'drug' killed and injured scores of people, including children, the safety ****'s would be crying 'foul' so loud, it'd be deafening, and the product would be off the shelf before the hour was out. We'd also hear stories about how drug companies are only in it for the money, and how evil they are.

But since this is a product that the safety ****'s themselves promoted, then the 'end justifies the means,' and I still have an airbag staring me in the face. (Can you imagine how villified a drug company would be if they claimed that?)

5) The only reason we have airbags, is because a few states refused to pass seat belt laws. Then we got airbags engineered for the morons who won't wear seat belts. The entire passive-restraint/airbag problem should have been a moot point.

All in all, I'd rather just have a 5-point seat belt. (Which in itself is illegal...)

Did I leave anything out?

 

I didn'yt know 5 point safty harnesses were illegal, how about 4 points?
Well too bad it's illegal to disengage your airbags.....

 

so close your eyes when know u're gonna crash

 

 

It's not just Nissan, many other companies have had such problems. A woman here got killed by her airbag in a 5 mph bump in an Acura. Although the woman was way to close to the steering wheel, the airbag shouldn't have deployed.

On the other side of the coin though, we never hear how many people were saved by airbags, only the people that were hurt by them...

 

Airbags have saved MUCH more people than they have every hurt/killed

 

That was my last point...they have saved more lives. We just never hear about the number of lives saved...

 

Last night, a DJ saved my life

 

Count me as one saved. I was hit from behind (in my 93 SE) by a tractor-trailer rig which spun me to the left into the sand barrels at the leading edge of a concrete median divider. We were going about 70 mph when it happened. Everything worked perfectly, seat belt, airbag, and those wonderful barrels. My only injury was the loss of my Max. I loved that old car. So, in the future, I'll take my chances with the airbag.

Buzz

 

I hope nissan loses

 

sorry about the accident.....did u seat far away from the steering wheel? I think that helped.

my boss's wife is a small women and she got into an accident in her old car. She was badly hurt from the seat belt and her head almost hit the steering wheel. Insurance said that she's lucky because her car doesnt have an air back....otherwise, the air bag will cause lot more injury to her head.

 

Most drivers unfortunately don't understand that you should be at least 12 inches away from the steering wheel if you have an airbag. Some smaller people (mostly women and children in passenger seats) should get the airbag deactivated by the dealership should this distance not be achievable. In Canada, there is a government website that deals with the deactivation of airbags. To quote:

"Two other risk groups may be better off with an air bag on-off switch:

Drivers who cannot get back 25 cm. Very few drivers are unable to sit so that their sternum is 25 cm away from their air bag. If, despite your best efforts, you cannot maintain a distance of 25 cm, you may wish to consult your vehicle manufacturer for information to help you move back. If you cannot get back 25 cm from the air bag cover, you may wish to consider an on-off switch."

More info at this site:

http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/air_b...h/edeact04.htm

The same issue exists with seatbelts. I see a lot of people wearing improperly adjusted seatbelts. The belt is on their neck instead of their shoulder (all cars have a seatbelt hight adjuster nowadays along the B pillar). If they get into an accident, they can get seriously injured or killed by their seatbelt.
Most driver's just aren't informed re airbags and seatbelts...

 

Watch the entire report.....the 94 crash test video demonstrates that the airbag deploys straight into the passengers eyes before fully inflating. The 95 model (video shown) does not do the same.

IMO, it doesn't matter how many other cars had similar airbag deployment or how few incidents have occurred....if the crash test demonstrates that the design could potentially blind someone, then Nissan did not do its homework on this "safety" feature.

BTW, I hate seeing people get millions of $ for BS lawsuits (I spilled my coffee in the drivethru and it was so hot that I burned myself). But this time the injuries are life-changing.....

 

Yeah, I'd agree with you on that. I'm 5'11" and I don't lean over the wheel when I drive, hands on 10 & 2, etc...

Buzz