SRS - Research

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Occupational Safety and SRS

Testing Frontal Airbag Passive Performance:

SRS frontal airbags are powerful passive safety devices that have been designed to deploy at a pre-set threshold value to prevent unwanted deployment causing injury to front occupants. The tests were conducted by the ‘Top Gear’ TV program at Opel in Germany. They were devised to show frontal system’s passive performance in relation to likely events that could realistically be encountered by motorists, where airbag deployment would be counter productive and could lead to injury.

Unwanted deployment can lead to significant injury and even death. It is important that airbags only deploy where crash kinematics are sufficient to cause significant injury.  Although the video trials the system in a novel and entertaining way, it never-the-less highlights the performance, or rather non performance, of frontal airbags in situations where deployment would not be beneficial.    

As critical as this may be, it is vital that the airbags do deploy on impact where their pre-set limit value is met.  However airbag non-deployment and late deployment is a known occurrence often missed investigating the crash or when considering the mechanisms of injury.

The buttons opposite are linked to respective research and informative documents for study and discussion in relation to supplementary restraint systems (SRS) and the likely implications they hold for Rescuers.

For example the SRS - airbag awareness research site offers a collection of news items and useful research links which expose possible hidden dangers posed by SRS to vehicle occupants, casualties and Rescuers alike. The site is constantly monitored and regularly updated.

Of particular importance SRS Smart Systems Logic offers an essential foundation on how intelligent systems operate and, even more importantly, how they are configured not to deploy where the seating position is not occupied.