<br>I was rear-ended by a big pick-up truck recently. I was stationary on the left<br>lane in front of a traffic cone (the lane had abruptly ended because of construction) trying to merge back. This pick-up truck<br>did not see me stopped<br>and just crashed into me. I could see the guy coming in the rear-view mirror<br>and I braced myself for the impact and the air bags exploding in my face.<br>Although the impact was severe (the car has been in the shop for two months),<br>the air bags did not deploy. I was told by the body shop that airbags do not <br>deploy in a rear-end collision.<p>Any thoughts?

My understanding is that this is correct behavior. During a rear-end collision the forces are throwing you back into your seat, so it's the seat-back and head rest that are protecting you from flying throughout the car. If you had, in turn, been forced to collide with the car in front of you, then that impact should have deployed the airbags. I would bet that your explosive seatbelt tensioners also did not fire in this accident.<p>On a different note and IMHO, I think that the cost of replacing these bags as well as insurance companies influence on the market success of any vehicle (read: the price of insurance can be as much a determining factor in a purchase as the price) lead the manufacturers (of both cars and airbags) have an interest in preventing deployment in any collision that would not result in bodiliy injury. In other words, I don't "they" want to limit any "premature ejections". Again, just MHO.<p>Alex