I recently received the following post concerning the effects of the driver’s airbag deploying in an accident.  The content is very interesting and raises a few questions concerning the danger of mud, distractions, journey planning and the lack of knowledge re airbags in the car.

When airbags go off bang!

Last year I had an accident in which my airbag went off. It was not at all how I had expected it to be and it would have been very helpful to have had a bit of prior knowledge, which is what I am hoping to impart to you. Knowing this would definitely have reduced the scariness of the incident.

So, let’s set the scene……it was a dark, very cold, January night and I was driving on a little back road from Harleston to Hempnall, on the way to Norwich to go and pick up resources from the Millenium library for the following day’s training. I was then collecting a band member to go to a Slow Gin (our blues band) rehearsal. Time was tight. I normally drove an old 2 seater with very low suspension, which hugged the road like it had just met it again after a very long time. Cornering was its special delight! (Jackie – in good, dry conditions!)  But because of picking up boxes of books, a guitarist and two guitars I was driving our Peugeot 307 which was more skittish on corners particularly if you had forgotten which car you were driving, and were listening to a song, and were learning it at the same time……..you know what is going to happen, don’t you?! (New drivers, this is not an example of safety!)

I was on a section of road which the farmer, whose land it runs through, told me is on the border of two parish councils who disagreed whose responsibility it was, and so it never gets resurfaced.  There are always accidents here, he told me cheerfully whilst I picked up various missed oddments of art materials which had flown out from my boot and were still in the ditch. But back to the night…..

As I went around the corner I noticed that I was taking it slightly too wide and then I lost control of the car (ice on the unsurfaced road?)  Jackie – no, not ice, it was mud on the road!

and headed for what looked like a tree…. This is a country road where there was no lighting, but there did appear to be a lot of foliage, and then the most enormous bang happened with a bright orange flash and everything went black. When I came to, I was very confused, not helped by the fact that it HAD been a small tree and the car was on its side and I was in its uppermost branches.  
I couldn’t remember which car I was in, but whichever it was, there was a very strong smell of burning; I did recall a bright orange flash and the car appeared to be filling with smoke, although I could not see any flames or smell petrol.

So, facts about air bags…..they are packed in dust, when they open the dust fills your car….if it is dark and you are disorientated this is VERY easily mistaken for smoke. They also open with an explosive charge which is VERY loud and if you are close to the wheel can burn either you or your clothes. I had singeing all up the sleeve of the coat I had only made 3 weeks before, that was what I could smell. (Husband has just told me that they need the explosives to deploy the airbag to fill the space….I take his word that it has to be quite so violent as he is a military historian!)

I did not know either of these facts and had a few moments of cold fear, thinking that my car was alight and I was going to perish for lack of working out how to get out of it. Me to brain: “How do I open the windows on the bottom side to get out, which I need to do very urgently?” Brain to me: “Good Lord, I never did know such foolish information! But I do remember which verse you were singing when this strangeness happened!” Adrenalin does strange things to your brain, and thinking this might be the end of you definitely gets the old adrenalin running. However, I say this in favour of adrenalin, it completely blocks any pain and gives you the ability to slalom through the back window, which a kindly man has just bashed in with his handy sledgehammer, as if you were in the Olympics gymnastics team. Hurrah!

Feeling that scared also alters your sense of perception, so I phoned my dear one and told him that I had come off the road and was in a field.  What a lovely safe place to be!  He was somewhat alarmed, therefore, to notice a blue glow in the sky approaching my approximate location and to round the corner and see two fire engines, a police car, an ambulance and my car on its side up a tree and over a four foot ditch. I would have been too, as I was convinced that I had driven off the road into a field!

To end on a humorous note…..the training I was due to deliver the following day was ‘Physicality, Sensuality and Sexuality’,  a course for staff about sexuality and relationships for people with learning difficulties. After I had been borne off in the ambulance for neck x-rays, my husband stayed with the firemen who were retrieving and righting the car. Of course lots of the resources had moved from the boot to the inside of the car and out the open window. Amongst these were the aforementioned art materials used in other courses.  My husband told the firemen that I had sexuality resources in the car and not to be too shocked. One young firemen picked up a large container of silver sparkles (art materials) and asked him what this was used for, vis-a- vis sexuality, at which my droll husband drew him aside and said quietly, “Oh, don’t you know? Ask the other lads to tell you when you go for a drink when you are off duty!” and came to the hospital tee-heeing all the way!

PS.  I never learn songs whilst driving now, it takes up too much of my poor challenged brain and definitely affects concentration …..and I apologise to the tree every time I pass it.  It has never quite recovered, although fortunately I pretty much have.

Zoë Grace Cozens   www.leapfrogtraining.co.uk

So what can you learn from this sorry tale?

• Airbags save lives but they are not without danger themselves!  Zoe Grace fortunately only had her coat sleeve singed but it could have been much worse.  People can sustain quite serious injuries from the deployment of an airbag if they position themselves too close to the steering wheel.  Your body should be at least 25cm from the steering wheel.  By coincidence I was asked today about airbags when pregnant.  The advice I gave was that the airbag will prevent serious injury, but that the pregnant woman should measure the 25cm from her bump.  If it makes reaching the controls impossible, then perhaps she should consider not driving when this stage is reached.  I am not an expert on this so any advice from someone with more knowledge would be appreciated.

• Mud is very slippery!  You should take as much care driving on mud as you would do on ice!  Why do you think Zoe Grace found she was taking the corner wide?  Her speed into the bend, which may well have been slow but certainly not slow enough, meant that the car was not able to turn on the slippery mud, and so she ended up against a tree!

The driver of this car, fortunately with no tree to hit, also failed to comprehend the significance of the sign next to where his car ended up!  Notice this too happened on a bend.

Slippery surfaces and bends are a recipe for disaster!

As Zoe Grace says at the end, she was distracted – by the reason for her journey (“time was tight”) as well as by the song she was singing and the words she was trying to learn at the same time!  Driving requires your full attention, at any time, but especially on rural roads in bad road and weather conditions!

Look for the clues, in this case:

1. Time of year – winter so likely to have been wet, maybe even icy!
2. Time of day – it’s dark, rural so no lighting; there could suddenly be an animal, fox or deer maybe, in your path, and unseen dangers on the road surface such as thick mud.
3. Location: it’s rural Norfolk and runs through farmland so even higher chance of mud on the road surface!

A final word:

Plan your journeys.  Consider the time of day and time of year when selecting your route.  This particular road may well have been a shortcut, reasonably familiar to Zoe Grace, but just like the forest at night, in all the best horror movies, takes on a very sinister character at night in winter!  My advice in these circumstances is to choose the open main routes, even if that means a slightly longer journey.

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