Seat belt and airbag did not work properly in an accident

Tiny
TJ KJEDERQUIST
  • MEMBER
  • 2013 RAM 1500
  • V8
  • 4WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 69,000 MILES
I was recently in an accident, I swerved and went straight into a ditch. Seat belt did not tighten up and the airbag did not deploy. What would be the problem with the seat belt, and could a bad clock spring cause a non deployment of the airbag?
Monday, November 20th, 2017 AT 3:39 PM

4 Replies

Tiny
JACOBANDNICKOLAS
  • MECHANIC
  • 109,885 POSTS
The seat belt should have locked, so that is a question for someone who can actually look at it. As far as the air bag, if the clock spring was bad, the airbag light would have been on indicating a problem. If it was not on, you have to keep in mind, the vehicle needs to take a hard hit to deploy and in the right place.
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Monday, November 20th, 2017 AT 5:22 PM
Tiny
TJ KJEDERQUIST
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That is what my face did to my steering wheel and column. The body shop working on it said it should have gone off. But no light was on so not the clock spring then?
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Monday, November 20th, 2017 AT 6:11 PM
Tiny
JIS001
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A bad clock spring would prevent the bag from deploying. Even if the SRS light was not on, the ABS or Tracs light would be on.

Without actually scanning the vehicle it would be hard to give you advise. The dealership would need to do that since your vehicle has a black box. You may need to get a lawyer for those records.
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Monday, November 20th, 2017 AT 10:21 PM
Tiny
STEVE W.
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How did you hit into the ditch? If you hit directly into the front of the vehicle and "stopped" they both should have deployed. If you sort of slid in sideways and did not hit real hard the sensors may not have tripped. As JIS says, you can hook a scan tool up to the SRS system and it will show the various forces and whether or not it should have gone off.

But you also mention having a possible bad clock-spring. If it was bad it should have activated the airbag light and disabled the system. That as well would show up in a scan. As JIS also says, you will want a lawyer involved because you may end up in court if it shows the forces involved should have activated the SRS system but did not.
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Wednesday, November 22nd, 2017 AT 2:27 PM

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