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Hyundai is developing technology to improve the effectiveness of its existing airbag system. In response to studies that determine that many car accidents involve more than one collision, the Korean car manufacturer has announced its intention to redesign its airbag system to include additional airbag deployment in the event of a secondary crash.
To reduce injuries and fatalities, safety systems installed in cars today include airbags in the steering wheel, to protect drivers, and in the dashboard, to protect passengers. Side-impact airbags have been implemented to provide protection when the force of a crash comes from the side of the vehicle. However, all airbags are deployed upon the initial impact of an accident, thus leaving vehicle occupants unprotected in subsequent impacts.
Data announced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) indicated that 30 percent of car accidents involve more than one collision. Hyundai took the initiative to investigate ways to address the problem.
A multi-collision car accident is defined as a crash that involves more than one impact. This happens in the case of a pile up, when one car hits the car in front of it and is then hit by the car behind. In a more terrifying instance, it also occurs when a car is rammed off the road into a roadside object, into another vehicle, or into oncoming traffic.
Hyundai’s intention is to integrate additional airbag deployments to protect passengers when a car accident becomes a multi-crash incident. The company’s safety experts recognized that its airbag system exhausted all its protection on the initial impact, even though the secondary impact is often more fatal.
Designers were wary of simply redeploying the airbags, so they plan to make the secondary activation more sensitive. The new designs will consider that these impacts may happen in rapid succession, so the airbags will be quick reacting. The system will also account for the position of the car’s occupants. The design will use sensors to activate airbags in the areas that will best protect the driver or passengers.
Hyundai intends for the new technology to become part of the safety system in future Hyundai and Kia vehicles, but there is no official date for its implementation.
This is not the first time Hyundai has introduced a revolutionary idea to protect the occupants in its vehicles. Back in 2018, the car manufacturer responded to the risks of roll-over accidents by proposing a design involving an airbag tucked into the sunroof of some of its vehicles. Like the sensors envisioned to predict occupant positioning in the multi-collision solution, the sunroof airbag system was designed to detect the vehicle’s upside-down position.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident, reach out to the Wilmington car accident lawyers at Jacobs & Crumplar, P.A. Call us at 302-656-5445 or contact us online for a free consultation. Our offices are in Wilmington and Georgetown, Delaware, where we represent car accident victims throughout Dover, New Castle County, and Sussex County.