Careful how you mount your GPS Unit

[Pocketgps]

Hi Everyone,

A friend of mine had a heavy car crash, the impact caused the passenger airbag to go off, his GPS Unit was screen mounted on the passenger side of the car, the power cable to the lighter-socket lay over the dash (part of which) was the cover over the airbag, after the crash and airbag inflation, the power cable complete with GPS Unit and screen mount were found in the back of the car smashed along with the back window, the GPS unit had hit the back window.

Fortunately, it had not made contact with him and he had no passengers.

But just be aware on the danger that implies for anybody in the car, think he was very lucky.

Also think about the insurance side of this, they would not pay out for injuries caused by that, and may even refuse to pay for the car as well.

[BoPeep]

Hi Pocketgps,

Sorry to hear about your friend - I hope that he wasn't too badly hurt.

It's definitely something to think about when installing any external equpiment in your car.

Regards,

Bo Peep.
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TomTom 730
HTC Desire - Co Pilot Live Premium (Europe)

[Pocketgps]

Hello Bo Peep,

He was not hurt, just lots of bumps and no body else was involved.

That was a few days ago, he looks worse now than when it happened

[Darren]

As a former Traffic Officer I have seen many road accidents and the damage and injuries that result. Airbags inflate very rapidly and objects in the path of their inflation can become missiles.

You raise a very important point, nothing should be placed in such a position that it obstructs the area in front of airbags. It's off-topic but some years ago I was directed to attend what would have been a relatively minor vehicle collision, however, the front seat passenger had placed both her feet on the dash directly over the airbag panel.

When the car she was travelling in collided with another car the airbag was triggered and the result was some minor fractures to her feet, a smashed kneecap and a broken jaw. How many times have you seen front seat passengers relaxing like this?
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Darren Griffin

[Maxi]

A very good point and something, as a newbie to all of this, I'd never really thought of before.

With the new-found popularity of Sat-Nav in cars, and concidering many new users could be directed to this website, do you think its worth putting some kind of warning on the Home Page?

[Skippy]

With the popularity of airbags in cars, it would probably be better to put a warning on the cars!

I think some manufacturers already have warning information about not locating your satnav (or anything else for that matter) in the airbag's deployment area.

This didn't stop my wife wanting to put her feet on the dash, right on top of the hole that the airbag would deploy from.
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Gone fishing!

[MrGrumpy]

It isn't always easy to know where the passenger airbags actually are though.

On my car ('04 Mondeo) there are no markings to show where it will 'burst out' from, just a label near the left hand side to indicate an airbag is present.

Are there any reference sites which help you identify where the 'danger areas' are?

[Skippy]

[MrGrumpy]

The handbook is pretty vague about the location of the airbags; there's a drawing which shows the activated passenger airbag as squarish, occupying the entire space in front of the passenger.

On the dash, there is a small SRS logo, but it is on the left of the dash, adjacent to the airvent. I'd be surprised if this is where the 'bag actually deploys from.

[jgreen]

If you sit in the passenger seat and look at the dash directly in front of you, thats where the balloon comes out!

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