A Chevy Silverado driver learned a tough (and expensive) lesson in how airbags work after he tried to free his pickup truck from being lodged on top of a cement parking bollard.
A video of this rather confusing incident was posted to the always entertaining Reddit page /r/idiotsincars over the weekend. The 15-second clip shows a K2XX-generation Chevy Silverado Crew Cab with an older man behind the wheel that has somehow mounted a cement parking bollard. We assume the driver of the truck accidentally accelerated toward the pole before crashing into it. It seems the initial impact had considerable force, as it caused the pole to bend and cracked the cement foundation it was seated in.
In an attempt to free his truck, the driver puts the Chevy Silverado into reverse and tries backing up. This at first doesn’t seem to be working, as the truck’s chrome front bumper is lodged on the parking bollard. The driver then gives it a bit more gas, freeing the truck before it slams down onto the pavement. The filmer and other onlookers begin cheering, assuming their friend had successfully freed his truck from this unfortunate predicament, but their celebrations are short-lived. The force with which the truck comes bouncing to the ground causes the side curtain restraint to go off, giving the driver a face full of airbag and knocking his hat clean off his head.
The driver of this truck would have been better off calling a tow truck to help him get his truck off the parking bollard. While this would have been an expensive solution, it’s a much better alternative than tearing up your front bumper and having your driver-side curtain airbag bop you in the face.
Check it out in the clip embedded below.
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Comments
totaled
It would be totaled if it was an aluminum tin can Ford.
Ford drivers are not as dumb.
Want to bet?
Reddit is a bunch of Prius driving nerds.
Hey Nunya Bidniz, is there a reason why you’re hiding behind two usernames to roleplay switch between a triggered liberal and a retarded conservative? Don’t you have a job, or at least some kind of life?
What do you really think a tow truck would do? Do you think he would lift the front of the truck like a crane lol?….
Hmm. Back in 1998, I had a brand new (month old) Cadillac Catera. On a very sunny day, I didn’t notice the brake and blinker lights on the car in front of me and slammed on the brakes at the last minute. It was estimated that I hit her while still doing about 28 to 32 MPH. My airbags did not deploy. Because of my training in both auto sales and as a police officer, I knew the speed was well above the threshold to cause the bags to inflate. Thankfully neither the lady in the Buick Skylark nor I were injured, but I was quite perplexed as to why my airbags didn’t go off. I contacted GM and they send a person to the car and took a reading off the black box (yes, the Catera was one of the first to have one). They ended up telling me the impact wasn’t enough to deploy the bags. When I started asking more questions, they only said it was because I hit a movable object (her Buick was pushed about 20 feet forward when I hit her). That just didn’t sound logical to me because the bags would deploy at about 15 MPH if I hit a solid non-movable object and I hit her car at about double that speed. I ended up going to an attorney who told me my case would not be strong against GM, so I dropped it.
Now I watch this video and think how the heck this side curtain airbag deployed by just dropping down from that post!! This is a truck! It’s made to go over bigger bumps, rocks, off road, etc. I don’t get it.
Your mistake is thinking airbags deploy at a certain speed. Forward airbags deploy at a set deceleration (a bit simplified in this era of MEMS accelerometers). If I hit a stationary insect at 100 MPH nothing is going to happen.
Since multiple factors, such as braking on the front vehicle, pre-collision velocity, mass of both vehicles, road surface condition. The only accurate way to determine if a deceleration reaches the threshold is by looking at the airbag computer data, like GM did. Seat of pants, or saying there’s a threshold speed, is not accurate at all.
Side curtain airbags deploy at a threshold roll rate, which is what was triggered here. This is necessary to ensure they inflate before the head hits them in a rollover accident.
Thank you for being informed and sharing.
The roll rate was hitting many in early ZR2 models till it was updated.
Why didn’t any airbags deploy on initial impact?
Defected impact with the pole. The forces were not heave in this kind of a impact.
You kind of have to think in 3D.
…Like a ROCK!
Time for the old timer to hand in the license.
Had flat tire had to jack it up the easy way.
that’s a little sensitive, that bounce is no worse then running some back mountain roads
The truck did rotate like, 45° with a sudden stop at the end. I’ve bounced mine pretty hard too, but not with one wheel 3 feet in the air to start.
Finally a funny video !!
Wow LOL… Classic how his hat flys out the window after airbag goes off!! Got really good distance! On a similar note, had a old dude try and get into my Silver GMC Z71 he had one looked just like mine. Don’t always think old dudes baby their cars!
That was me in Arkansas at a walmart. Some little kid ran out the door without his parents and I yanked to the left and hit the Ballard and did $35,000 damage. And yes those are bags hurt like hell and the white power is horrible