GMC 2007 Canyon - Manual (Page 82)

When Should an Airbag Inflate?
The driver’s and right front passenger’s frontal
airbags are designed to inflate in moderate
to severe frontal or near-frontal crashes. But
they are designed to inflate only if the impact
exceeds a predetermined deployment threshold.
Deployment thresholds take into account a variety
of desired deployment and non-deployment
events and are used to predict how severe a
crash is likely to be in time for the airbags to inflate
and help restrain the occupants. Whether your
frontal airbags will or should deploy is not based
on how fast your vehicle is traveling. It depends
largely on what you hit, the direction of the impact,
and how quickly your vehicle slows down.
In addition, your vehicle has “dual stage” frontal
airbags, which adjust the restraint according
to crash severity. Your vehicle has electronic
frontal sensors which help the sensing system
distinguish between a moderate and a more
severe frontal impact. For moderate frontal
impacts, these airbags inflate at a level
less than full deployment. For more severe
frontal impacts, full deployment occurs.
If the front of your vehicle goes straight into a wall
that doesn’t move or deform, the threshold level
for the reduced deployment is about 8 to 16 mph
(12.9 to 25.7 km/h), and the threshold level for
a full deployment is about 19 to 24 mph
(30.6 to 38.6 km/h) if the other sensors do not
over-ride this. The threshold level can vary,
however, with specific vehicle design, so that it
can be somewhat above or below this range.
Frontal airbags may inflate at different crash
speeds. For example:
• If the vehicle hits a stationary object, the
airbags could inflate at a different crash speed
than if the vehicle hits a moving object.
• If the vehicle hits an object that deforms, the
airbags could inflate at a different crash
speed than if the vehicle hits an object that
does not deform.
• If the vehicle hits a narrow object (like a pole),
the airbags could inflate at a different crash
speed than if the vehicle hits a wide object
(like a wall).
• If the vehicle goes into an object at an angle,
the airbags could inflate at a different crash
speed than if the vehicle goes straight into
the object.
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