Wow Mark - gotta respect the design of that crush zone on the Mazda!

 

I hit a COW AT NIGHT ON I-35 at 70 mph. impacted just below crosshairs. felt like going over railroad tracks. No airbag deployment. Little over $11,000 in damage which Geico covered all (no chnage in rates) plus they let me replace stock bumper with the same Ranchhand front as above.

 

You have to hit the sensors just right to trigger deployment. Say a small car goes under a truck, guess what, the frame area wasn't touched, but pretty much everything ABOVE the frame gets ripped back and rarely the air bags go off. Seen it too many times in my previous job. Usually, the sensors are mounted back a bit in the front frame rails.

 

I am pretty sure sensor location and proximity to the impact are irrelvant. It is my understanding that most (all?) modern system use accelerometers, which detect change in speed, not actually being crushed. I think the "sensors" for my 2003 are mounted in the small module at the base of the dash.

 

I saw a Jeep Cherokee yesterday that had the drivers air bag deployed. It had damage to the left front fender. I was surprised there was deployment as it didn't appear the fender was pushed back into the door, or into the hood.

It must have been hit just right.

 

Glad you are OK, thats what is truly important

 

Not to make light of what happened but now you can say your truck is Ram Tough.

Pav