Sounds like you guys are talking about Sue, and she's from Dallas. We're all glad she's okay and made it back unharmed.

I hope the folks in the PW are okay as well.

 

and we have a winner!

 

Thank you for the clarification of the incident Killboy! Good to finally hear the whole story and not just rumor. What day was this?

Thursday Afternoon/Evening when i arrived at Deals Gap and was doing my first run I came accross you standing in the middle of the street with a broom and a Sport Bike rider sitting on his bike about 50 feet away. I never saw a rolled car anywhere so i'm guessing it wasn't the same incident.....

 

One thing that strikes me really strongly -- Killboy is the best friend anyone who drives the Dragon can have. Not only does he take some awesome photos, he is one super citizen! Thanks for being there for all of us Dragon drivers!

Paul

 

The PW MINI is owned by a customer of mine, Eddie, from Charlotte. I just got off the phone with him and he is still in the hospital, but should be released soon. He has a few broken ribs and a broken eye socket, some bruising and may have dislocatied his shoulder. He is in good spirits and just glad it wasn't worse. His daughter is OK, the side airbag in the pass seat did deploy, however he feels most of his injuries were caused by his side airbags failing to deploy. I think this warrants an investigation.
Killboy, we are all grateful to have you out there, thanks
--Dan

 

Flipping on the passenger side, with no direct impact on the drivers side, will not cause the drivers side seat bag to deploy. Did the fronts or side curtains deploy?

 

No, just the bag in the pass seat, he was thrown back into the driver side door glass.
--Dan

 

And was he wearing his seatbelt?

 

She actually stopped by my tent shortly after her incident, and I couldn't believe that she had rolled it as she described. There were no scratches on the door or side--only the front bumper and trim were a little out of place. There was a mud spot on the convertible top as well. There were also minor scratches on the arches--which after some Black Wow, hid them, and made everything look normal again.

 

Thanks for everything you do up there on the dragon KB. Both for accidents and the fun stuff.

 

It sounds like we might be talking about two different accidents. According to KillBoy, the accident that he and Dan referred to was an end over end cart-wheel. While the other may have been a convertible that simply "tipped" over.

One from Houston and one from Charlotte?

 

Just more proof that Killboy is a valuable asset to the Dragon enthusiast community.

Product placement!

 

It is amazing as to what will and will not set off air bags. You would think that doing a endo would make just about everything deploy. We had a car come by the shop that had its passenger side apron bag deploy from hitting a hard bump in the road. Mini swore he hit something and did not want to cover it . There was not a mark on the car but they still denied him and he had to pay for a new one.

Randy
M7 tuning

 

Yes, they both were!!!

 

You have to remember modern airbags have many safeguards now as to when to go or not go off. They now have sensors to not deploy during slow speed collisions because usually they will injure people rather than help them in collisions slower than 20-25mph. Also i've heard most modern vehicles (especially with esp or dsc systems) have tilt sensors in them and when they reach a certain angle (rollover inpending) they disable some airbags in the vehicle because airbags deploying during a rollover can again cause more injury then safety.

If the front or sides of the vehicle never made a hard enough impact with anything then there is no reason for the airbags to go off.

 

First and foremost: My wife and I are glad that they are going to be okay. The MINI can always be replaced.

I'm not an expert and these are just my thoughts from the two pictures and the experience from the accidents I worked in my previous jobs. It is important to remember that airbags are great safety features built into today's cars, but they are not going to prevent all injuries. As said before, an airbag deploying when it shouldn't could cause more harm than good.

The only pics of this of this accident that I have seen are the pic at the beginning of this thread and one on another thread , but I'm not sure the car did an endo. I see no front end damage or drivers side damage. If the car had a front end impact significant enough that it caused an endo, there should be quite obvious damage to at least the front of the car. Also, no front end damage should mean no front airbag deployment in most cases.

If there was no driver's side impact that side airbag should not have deployed either. As an example: in this accident, during the roll which resulted in the car landing on its passenger door let's say the drivers side airbag deploys (with the passenger side airbag) and then begins deflating(which how airbags work). If the car had continued to roll on over and impacted the drivers side, since the airbag had already deployed(with the passenger side), there would have been no protection for that impact.

Just basing this on my experience as an EMT and police officer, it is most likely that the injuries were from impacting interior areas of the car like maybe the armrest, possibly the cabrio top structure, rear view mirror(known to cause facial injuries), or even being twisted about in the seatbelt during the accident/rollover and most likely an airbag deployment would not prevent those injuries. Side airbags are to prevent injuries from the body of the car intruding into the passenger compartment-which further explains why the passenger side deployed and not the drivers side. Naturally, deployment of the passenger airbag will not prevent injuries to someone in the drivers seat, only a person in the passenger seat.

Like I said, just my opinion based on the two pics, limited information, and my previous experiences.

 

Glad to hear the people are going to be OK. And thanks to Killboy and others for the assistance.

 

The one that had an incident in the Cool Blue Cabrio isn't from Houston. She's from Dallas and is a member of the Metroplex MINI club, of which I am also a member. I spoke with her on Friday afternoon and she seemed to be doing fine, and said that her MINI just had a few scratches.

She said it looked like she needed to replace one of the black wheel arches. I told her to get the part and bring it to me and I would do it for her, since the dealership would probably charge her an hours labor to do it.

I only heard about the PW accident, so I can't comment on it at all.