During our investigation, we examined more than 160 complaints from consumers about their airbags failing to deploy in a serious accident. Those complaints involved the airbags in vehicles made by eight different automakers. We contacted each of those car makers and asked them to respond to the following questions.
Ford spokesman Dan Jarvis gave the following answers:
1). What's your message to consumers who have safety concerns with the airbags in one of your vehicles?
Jarvis: First, Ford tests its airbags and seat belt systems extensively. We have confidence in the field performance of our airbags. There's a good track record there and not a lot of issues or problems as far as airbags not deploying when they should.
What we have seen are situations where consumers felt the airbags should have deployed, but the airbags were not designed to go off in those situations.
All Ford airbags are self-diagnostic and an airbag readiness light will flash if there's a problem with the system. Our systems will also detect if you put something on the seat, like a briefcase, that doesn't weigh much. If that happens, the airbag system will shut off. This protects small children who may be in the front seat. Our advanced airbag systems have also raised the deployment threshold for occupants wearing seatbelts.
2). What should consumers do if their airbags fail to deploy during an accident in one of your vehicles?
Jarvis: First, we encourage customers to contact their local dealer, Ford's Customers Service Line (1-800-392-3673), or go to the company's Web site: www.Ford.com. We encourage customers to contact their dealer because they can provide initial feedback.
The dealers have seen a lot of wrecked vehicles and they should be able to tell if an airbag should or should not have deployed.
When consumers call our Customer Service Line, we'll consult with Ford's engineering department. If a customer believes their vehicle is defective -- or didn't deploy when it should have -- they can certainly contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). We give customers that information in their owners' manuals.
3) Does your company send someone to investigate an accident if an airbag fails to deploy in one of your vehicles?
Jarvis: It depends. We don't, for example, send someone out to look at every Ford collisions. But if a customer contacted Ford and said they didn't feel like their airbag system worked properly, then a lot of times, we'll send someone out.
The vast majority of times the airbags don't deploy in an accident, the system is operating according to its design, and the airbags should not have deployed.
We ask customers to provide digital pictures of their accidents so our engineers can review them. We also ask for some type of description of the accident. And based on this information, the engineers may decide the airbag worked appropriately or they may decide to investigate more.
In those cases, the investigator would gather all the available information about the crash: photos, police reports, pictures of the crash scene, witness statements, injury reports, and the diagnostic codes from the vehicle.
In rare cases, we may ask customers for permission to remove the vehicle's Electronic Data Recorder (EDR) so our engineers can analyze that information. We share all information we learn about the accident with our customers, and we believe the data contained in the EDR belongs to our customers.
4). Has your company recalled any vehicles because of problems with the airbags failing to deploy in an accident? If so, which vehicles-year, make, model?
Jarvis: No. We are not aware of any Ford brand vehicle being recalled for that reason.
