Buick 1994 Century Owner's Manual page 41

How The Air Bag System Works
When is an air bag expected to inflate?
Where is the air bag?
The driver's air bag is in the middle of the steering
wheel.
The air bag is designed to inflate in moderate to severe
frontal or near-frontal 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 15 mph (1 4 and 23 km/h).
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 deform 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 is
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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