swerved to avoid animal and lost control?

Question

i was on a on-ramp to an interstate highway when a racoon/beaver came in the way and to avoid it i swirved while turning and lost control. the car hit the sidewalk did a 180 and was facing the other way of the ramp.

During all this the only visible damange to the car is the scratched rim, not even bent, front bumper is a little scratched from hitting the sidewalk which made it to come out just very little from the driver's side. and both the driver's front airbag and the passengers front air bag were deployed.
However there was no passenger in the car, and the side airbags didn't deploy.

no other car hit me. the officer and the tow truck people said that the airbags shouldn't have deployed and that you can go after the manufacturer. I have no idea what to do at this point. i didn't report it to insurance yet. i am a NJ resident. Some people are saying the premium will not be effected by this and some say it will increase by 1.75%

what are my options??

Answer 1

unless it was a deer, anything else woulda been roadkill. it just isnt worth going into extreme evasive manuvers for anything smaller. simply because since this is an onramp, cars behind u could have wiped u out.
airbag's are triggered by a sensor. if speed is over 10 or 15 mph, their usually set to deploy if a frontal impact is detected. the same for side bags...only a side impact will trigger the side bags. the sensor's for the bags is around the bumper area, and looks like the bumpers took a big enough jolt to trigger them.
i would swerve only if it was a deer. gettin plastered by another car or even a semi just isnt worth the risk.

Answer 2

First of all, you shouldn't take the words of someone who is not an airbag expert on whether the airbag should have deployed. If you file an insurance claim it will be considered a negligent accident, and you can be surcharged. If you want to go the manufacturer route, then you should not get the vehicle fixed until the manufacturer sends someone out to inspect the vehicle, and that will not happen overnight!

With an insurance claim, if the adjuster thinks there's a problem,they can get the manufacturer involved and/or go after them for the damage from the inflation. Long shot- just know that going into it. If you were going any kind of speed, depending on where your sensors are, once you went up on the sidewalk at that speed, it could have been enough to trigger it. Always hit the animal! You're not at fault when you hit the animal. When you swerve (and it was a small animal at that, not even a deer, which can really mess up you and your car) and lose control, then it's your fault.

Answer 3

What are your options? Get your car fixed. You can't drive it the way it is. If you have the coverage to have the insurance pay, turn it in. If not, if you don't have full coverage that would cover an accident that was your fault, don't. As to whether or not your premium would increase, only your insurance could tell you that. Mine seems to increase every year without claims.

Typically if you were going at or above a certain speed, and had a font end incident that showed at or above a certain force, your airbags will deploy to protect you. Police are wonderful at knowing what the vehicle codes are, and tow truck drivers are wonderful at knowing where to hook up on various cars, but I would bet neither of them pulled out a lap top computer and hooked it up to your car and read the 5 seconds of data captured before the crash. Unless they did, they have no idea what they are talking about. (And I was a cop for 32 years before I became a tow truck service in 1999). So take the advice to go after the manufacturer for what it's worth. Remember, opinions are like (I will be polite) belly buttons. Everyone has one.

Fix your car, get new airbags put in.

Answer 4

Airbag deployment depends upon the forces involved. Whether or not the passenger airbag will deploy depends upon the design of the system. Older systems will deploy both front airbags at the same time. Newer systems usually won't deploy the airbag if the seat is unoccupied but this can be fooled if there is a weight on the seat.

Police officers and tow truck drivers are not qualified to evaluate the deployment of the airbags, only automotive engineers are. A dealer can connect their diagnostic equipment to the car and evaluate the system and can probably tell you if the deployment was proper or not.

You do need to report this to your insurance company. And a police report is also required as the damage almost certainly exceeds the state limit for formal reporting.

If you swerve to avoid an animal, you are still at-fault for any resulting accident, especially if it is a small animal that would not cause significant damage to your car when hit. It's one thing to swerve to avoid a deer or moose, quite another to avoid a racoon or squirrel or even a small dog or cat. Personally, I would never deliberately hit an animal, but I would not sacrifice myself, my family, other drivers, or my car to avoid one.

Whether your premiums will be increased or not is up to your insurance company.

Answer 5

some air bags will go off without a hard hit call a lawyer let him deal with it