[sudhirdamo]

I agree here with Sagar

Watch this video - only the passenger side airbag selectively opens and not the driver airbag

https://youtu.be/5UjexLcCcXU

Ford must be commended for having built best in class & solid products, and I own an endeavour and feel pretty safe inside

I am sorry you had to go through this incident, and fully empathise with you on the doubts you may be having regarding your car; do write to Ford officials in charge of design / engineering for their word

But all said and done, we must count our blessings for coming out unhurt, not everyone in any car can claim to walk out post so many rollovers, physics is same for all - and this car clearly absorbed a good amount of energy and retained the outer shell integrity for passenger safety. For me, that’s all that counts and credit must be given where it is due

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

I think the side airbag deploying/not deploying is moot in the scenario presented. Even if the side airbags were deployed during the first rollover, they would have been deflated in matter of seconds , that's how airbag's are designed. They have holes in them to deflate after inflation .No way they would have remained inflated for all 8 rollovers of the car.

Be happy that the occupants are alive and kicking even after 8 rollovers. The car has protected the occupants and that's what matters at the end of the day, whether airbags were deployed or not. Would one be satisfied if the airbag deployed but some of the occupants died or suffered severe injuries?

[mathewspaul]

My cousin recently crashed his Ecospsort into a brick wall he walked out without any scratches. Hew was alone in the car and front driver air bag deployed. Both the front of the car and brick wall were destroyed. Our entirely family is thankful of Fords insane build quality.

[Turbojet]

Airbag sensors are placed behind the front bumper and between opposite doors. They are supposed to respond to a force or sudden de-acceleration. In your case the doors were not intruded upon by an external force and your friend didnt apply emergency brakes.

I didnt buy Ecosport because when it was tested by IIHS , they found a higher rollover risk. This is also true for all hatchbacks which have been raised up from the ground and labelled as compact SUV.

[OffRoadFun]

Originally Posted by gkveda

Instances like this will reinforce the evidences that all these claimed safety features are hit or miss and never reliable. There are more than 100 cases in our forum where airbags deployment discussion have happened with heated arguments.

Forget all logics reasons and justifications from the dealers, manufacturers or R&D groups. 95% of the accident occurs with 3 generic patterns. Either head-on, topples or side collision. If airbags don't deploy during any of these collisions, then, it simply means, they are not designed to address needs of the accidents. Then, What is the use of those safety features?

Some one has said "We purchase things that we don't need with the money we don't have to please someone who we don't like." These safety features also falls under the same category. We purchase cars with safety features that we never intend to use by paying hefty money that we don't have, to please someone in the friend circle to boast another special feature (6 or 8 or 10 airbags )and it never works when required.

And we get brilliant explanation by dealers finally which states our driving itself was faulty and therefore airbags didn't deploy.

Below are the reasons dealers give for non deployment of airbags

1. No head-on collision
When an accident is about to happen in next 4-5 secs, Should I avoid head-on and try to escape major mishap or go and do head-on to get the airbags deployed?

2. Vehicle was not running at the required speed
So, are they expecting that I will increase the speed and acceleration when I am left with 4-5 secs for collision for airbags to deploy.

3. Impact was not adequate enough for airbags to deploy
Oh, ok. What do I do for an effective impact next time ?

Common man is very intelligent. What ever hype manufacturers, reviewers and dealership give to these safety features, he does take it with a pinch of salt.

Theoretically, is there any difference between this car and say, Maruti 800 with respect to safety features?( let us not talk about metal thickness etc)

Sorry, your answer is too simplistic, generalizing and actually misleading. I would not have used such tone if it wasn't a matter of safety.
Concluding that a car with airbags is as good as Maruti 800 is dangerous and I hope no one takes it seriously, 25 thanks at the time of reply is worrying.

No, a car without airbags is NEVER as safe as one with airbags which are much much safer.

The primary sensor an airbag uses is deceleration, how fast a car comes to stop (say 2g/3g). If sensor reading is below that, airbag is not activated. That's usually why airbags deploy in head on collisions or if a vehicle hits from sideways which again shows up as extremely fast deceleration. At lower speeds( say 40kmph or whatever) a conscious decision is made by manufacturers to NOT to deploy airbags because airbags can cause burns themselves and it is a trade-off.

Hence, in cases where there is no head-on collision or even a hard bone-T hit by other car, airbags will not deploy. The six airbags are usually two front (for head on, in dashboard)and four sideways (two front seats and two back ones). In such a case, the car would have lost some speed and sensors correctly do not detect massive deceleration.

Not trivializing the accident or the agony of the same, the fact that occupants survived means no sudden head-on or sideways collision.

I have been involved in an accident myself where driver hit the median barrier sideways tangentially on a winding road and no airbag deployed cause it was neither head-on nor complete sideways. The car was totalled though. No one was injured seriously.

For heaven's sake, don't trivialize the importance of airbags. This is a case of toppling which SUVs are prone too.

[Rahul Bhalgat]

Happy for you to have survived this crash.

Neither of the following is the case:

1. Airbags normally do deploy in all Ecosports in such situations but they failed to deploy only in your Ecosport (pointing to some defect in your particular car).
   
2. Airbags do deploy in all situations, irrespective of which car it is (talking about the capability or limitations of the technology itself).

So, in my view, the manufacturers provide these airbags with good intentions but there are limitations to the technology they use. Hence the airbags do not deploy in some situations. The manufacturers declare this very clearly in their manual.

The limitations of technology apply equally across the car brands and models. On this forum itself, we have seen cases of non deployment of the airbags.

Even with these limitations, it is still better to have the airbags. And as the fellow members have said, these are the secondary restraint system, not the primary.

So my suggestion will be not to file any case against Ford. In my opinion, they aren't at fault. Some lawyer may be confident that he can present the case properly. It is their profession and I understand if they want you to fight the case. Some lawyers may even offer to fight free of cost in return for a percentage in the compensation. But simply the fact remains that Ford isn't at fault for limitations of the technology used. They have declared the limitations clearly and in spite of limitations the technology is useful for safety and does work in many situations.

If the 407 that caused this crash is known, a third party liability case can be made.

In case you still choose to file a case, the court will also ask for a proof of preventive maintenance done on the car from time to time. If the services / inspections have been skipped, it will weaken your case.

[daspranab]

Originally Posted by Rahulbarik

Hello, My name is Rahul and i belong from Kolkata. I am new to this forum and would be my first post here.
Unfortunately, i will not be able to start my journey in team-bhp on a happy note as i have recently lost my 2016 Ford Ecosport 1.5 tdci Titanium + in an almost fatal crash. Yet luckily, i lived. And lived to tell the story.
I would just write down what happened as things unfolded as i am still in a state of shock even after 1 month.

We were 3 friends returning from a marriage and the car was driven by my friend, while i was on the passenger side and one more friend on the rear seat. We were travelling around 80 kmph on a state by-pass road at around 3 am, when a Tata 407 came head on which made us serve left and off the road completely with all 4 wheels outside the road surface and almost into a roadside pond which was at least 4 feet lower than the road itself. Our car tilted left with left wheels touching the water, while still at 80 kmph, when my friend swerved right to get back up on the road but couldn't as the wheels couldn't grip. He kept on accelerating with the wheels spinning, hoping to bring the car up the road and avoiding getting submerged in the pond. The car was still probably at 80 kmph when suddenly the tyres gripped somehow and made the car jump up from the pond and on the road resulting in the car toppling on the left side and rolling atleast 8 times and hitting a light post and breaking a wall after hitting it and god knows what else. Finally the ordeal stopped, with the car plunging on another pond couple of hundred metres down the other side of the road, just giving enough time to get out before getting 80% submerged. Luckily it was 3-3:30 am in the morning and there was no traffic.
My car is a TDCI TITANIUM PLUS with 6 airbags and NOT A SINGLE AIRBAG DEPLOYED. NOT EVEN THE SIDE AND CURTAIN AIRBAGS. Yes, we were having our seat belts on.
The front windshield glass also shattered (on first impact with road) like cheap glass which it is not supposed to. The glass is supposed to be laminated from both sides as far as my knowledge goes, to prevent it from shattering and falling off and becoming like armed splinters(which is actually what happened and injured us, specially me with glass pierced on my whole body).
While the built quality of the car saved our lives with just bruises from the flying glass splinters, from the horrific accident, I'm still in awe as to how not a single airbag deployed.
Ford Workshop is giving lame excuses that the car was not hit from the front. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SIDE SENSORS FORD? They said side gets activated after the front sensors are triggered which i found to be a lame answer. When i showed them a video on YouTube on Ecosport crash test from side with the side and curtains deployed, they didn't have an answer.
Before i take it with Ford, i thought of getting valuable inputs from this forum and getting myself armed sufficiently so as to not look like a fool when ford gives me another lame excuse.
I would now let the pictures do the talking.

Special mention for Ford RSA!
These guys are amazing. They kept in touch with me right from the time of the incident and kept me updated. They kept on trying to pull out the car for 2 days with multiple failed attempts and survey of the location, after which they finally did it after they brought in 2 Hydra cranes.

And lastly Kudos to HDFC Ergo!
They declared it a constructive total loss, handed over the legal documents for the same. No drama, no questions, they simply paid up. All from the comfort of my home. That's how easy it was. All within less than a month.

Your safety is paramount over everything else. But it is scary to see how the glass splintered and curtain or other airbags failed, whatever the explanation of Ford is.

Hoped the incident will trigger introspection and recall by Ford but our systems may not force their hands.

Thank God once again for your safety!