Buick 1993 Roadmaster Owner's Manual page 39

How The Air Bag System Works
Where is the air bag?
The driver's air bag is in the middle of the steering
wheel.
When is an air bag expected to inflate?
The air bag is designed to inflate
, i n
moderate to severe
frontal or near-fontal crashes. The air bag will only
inflate if the velocity of the impact is above the designed
threshold level. When impacting straight into a wall that
does not'move or deform, the threshold level for most
GM vehicles is between 9 and 14 mph. However, this
velocity threshold depends on the vehicle design and
may be several miles-per-hour faster or slower. In
addition, this threshold velocity will be considerably
higher if the vehicle strikes an object such as a parked
car which will move and defonn on impact. The air bag
is also not designed to inflate in rollovers, side impacts,
or rear impacts where the inflation would provide no
occupant protection benefit.
In any particular crash, the determination of-whether the
air bag should have inflated cannot be based solely on
the level of damage on the vehicle(s). Inflation i,s
determined by the angle of the impact and the vehicle's
deceleration, of which vehicle damage is only one
indication. Repair cost is not a good indicator of
whether an air bag should have deployed.
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