1 hour ago, sometimewoodworker said:

If your face smacks the air bag or the air bag smacks you face makes very little difference.

 

In an accident where the airbag fires your face will hit the airbag, wearing a seat belt will not stop that.

 

Both the seatbelt and airbag reduce your forward speed more slowly  in an accident. Neither stops you being killed both reduce the chances of death.

 

Nothing in the report states that either the driver or his wife did not have their seatbelt fastened. There is no mention of the seatbelt in the report.

 

I have great sympathy for both the driver who lost his wife and his wife who tragically died in the accident. 

 

Unless you know for sure that they did not have seat belts on you are jumping to conclusions, and in any event your comments are petty and mean spirited and reflect on your character.

An airbag is designed to work in conjunction with a seatbelt and will cushion your face from hitting the dashboard. Without a seatbelt it actually is counterproductive as you are catapulted into an explosively inflating bag (smacking you in the face) often breaking your neck. With a belt the airbag will be just starting to deflate as you hit it. I know of someone who’s child was on their lap  when this happened and who otherwise would have been unharmed as it was a fairly low speed collision with a motorcycle.

No,we don’t know for sure if seatbelts were worn but given the propensity of Thais ,especially older ones to eschew safety procedures and rely on amulets this is not an unreasonable speculation.

15 hours ago, nchuckle said:

An airbag is designed to work in conjunction with a seatbelt and will cushion your face from hitting the dashboard. Without a seatbelt it actually is counterproductive as you are catapulted into an explosively inflating bag (smacking you in the face) often breaking your neck. With a belt the airbag will be just starting to deflate as you hit it.

While I agree that the airbags are designed to work with seatbelts and they can be quite dangerous for unrestrained people and children (the passenger airbag should be disabled with a young child in that seat.)

 

You have your physics completely wrong. No occupant in the front seats sitting normally will ever hit the airbag as it is inflating, they take about 40 milliseconds to inflate plus the 25 to 50 milliseconds to fire. To be hit by an airbag you must be leaning forward almost touching the steering wheel or passenger side dashboard.  You can not move far enough in 1/10th of a second to be in the inflation zone.

 

The danger to unrestrained occupants is that of sliding under the airbag so hitting the dashboard or your chest hitting it so potentially breaking ribs

 

Also some cars will not fire, or reduce the firing force, if the passengers airbag if the seatbelt is not fastened, I don't know if the car involved is one of them.

16 hours ago, nchuckle said:

No,we don’t know for sure if seatbelts were worn but given the propensity of Thais ,especially older ones to eschew safety procedures and rely on amulets this is not an unreasonable speculation.

Speculation is one thing. Snide, petty, hurtful, "cleaver", mean spirited remarks are another. I hope that if you had taken time to re-read you comment you wouldn't have made it. You can always ask a moderator to edit your post if you have second thoughts.

 

I also hope that Sangwian Mukkhunthot never gets to hear of it, as it will just add to his loss.

On 12/20/2018 at 8:56 PM, Guitar God said:

The passenger died in that crash, in a car with airbags?

Maybe without a seat belt, any sudden smash like that would still be a severe impact?