Airbags in cars are meant for safety during mishap. These bags inflate when you car meets with an accident or receives a sudden jerk from external sources. If the airbags do not open during emergency, it could be because of airbags. Reportedly, there have been incidents where a car’s airbags did not open and it was observed that the car had bumper guards/bull –bars/crash guards as optional accessories installed.

Recently central government had laid a ban on the use of bumper guards/bull –bars/crash guards. Is spite of this ban, these were seen on a number of cars especially those belonging to high profile people. It was observed that most of these cars used by ministers and officers had these guards installed on them.

It has been pointed out that having these bumper guards and others can result in failure of air bags. The air bags are connected to sensor controllers. When any mishap occurs at a speed of 60 to 80 km/hr… these airbags inflate. But airbags are impact sensitive and not speed sensitive. After an accident or a jerk, these airbag sensors get activated and inflate at a speed of 200 km/hr.

Airbags open when the driver has seat belt on. Any jerk triggers the sensors of airbags. BUT if a car has bumper guard or bull-bars, these sensors do not receive the impact of jerk; hence airbag sensors do not work resulting in non-inflation.

Bumper guards are not approved by RTO which may result in accidental claim being denied by insurance companies. As per Auto Expert Tutu Dhawan, bull bars are unscientific. That is the main reason why manufacturing companies do not use these guards in their vehicles. Censors for safety features in a vehicle do not work in the presence of bumper guards.

Important:

Because of bumper guards, jerk is first experienced by guards and it does not reach the sensors which activate air bags.

A car’s bonnet is designed to absorb the jerk caused by accident. That is the reason why bonnets crumple after an accident. With bumper guards, the entire vehicle faces jerk which is risky.

Bumper guards are dangerous for pedestrians and two-wheeler riders. The sturdy bumpers can cause serious injuries to a person whereas car’s bonnet or the boot do not harm to that extent.

Due to bumper guards or bull bars, the chassis of the vehicle receives a heavy jerk which is again extremely risky for the passengers inside. Damage to the vehicle is also comparatively more in this case.

Source : bhaskarnews