Motorist dies after being poisoned by airbag in minor crash

This forum is for the open, public discussion of the Crash Data Retrieval Tool or Event Data Recorder technology. This is open to any registered user of the CrashForum.info site and not intended for direct CDR Tool User technical or analytical support.
Post Reply
User avatar
mikemerolli
Posts: 70
Joined: Tue May 10, 2011 2:48 pm
First Name: Mike
Last Name: Merolli
Location: Massachusetts

Motorist dies after being poisoned by airbag in minor crash

Post by mikemerolli »

"Motorist dies after being poisoned by airbag in minor crash"

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/05/31/moto ... nor-crash/

"According to the coroner's office, Ronald Smith of Mardsen, South Shields in the UK "died as a result of the car crash and more pointedly because of the explosion of his airbag, and exposure to noxious substances."

According to IOL Motoring, Smith had been involved in a six-car accident in November of 2010 on his way home from work. While he wasn't physically injured in the crash, Smith inhaled the noxious contents of his airbag, which he said amounted to gases and a bunch of white powder, when an errant shard of glass punctured the bag.

A short time later, Smith was placed on a ventilator at South Tyneside District Hospital after suffering random coughing fits and breathlessness from any kind of physical activity. Smith died three weeks after being admitted to the hospital due to bronchial pneumonia.

Smith had been driving a Vauxhall Insignia, and General Motors is reportedly investigating the accident. Sodium azide, a chemical used to inflate airbags, turns into nitrogen gas when heated to inflate the device. Although sodium azide is toxic to humans, this appears to be the first time someone has died from its use in automotive airbags."

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/05/31/moto ... nor-crash/[/url]
Mike Merolli, ACTAR #1518
MAPFRE INSURANCE
SIU Accident Reconstructionist
Phone | 508.943.9000 Ext. 15071 | Cell | 508.208.8517
Email | mmerolli@mapfreusa.com | Fax | 508.671.3071 | http://www.mapfreinsurance.com

User avatar
Alvin_U
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2012 3:47 am
First Name: Alvin
Last Name: U

Re: Motorist dies after being poisoned by airbag in minor crash

Post by Alvin_U »

I have read some articles regarding this case. Air bag deployment can really cause breathing problem. Sodium azide is a chemical used to inflate air bags. The chemical turns into nitrogen gas when heated, inflating the safety device. Sodium azide is a highly toxic substance. However, at this time, Smith’s is the only known case in which its deployment proved fatal to a human being. I found the report here: Man dies from inhaling air bag gases

User avatar
Rusty Haight
Posts: 624
Joined: Tue May 10, 2011 3:24 pm
First Name: W. R. Rusty
Last Name: Haight
Contact:

Re: Motorist dies after being poisoned by airbag in minor crash

Post by Rusty Haight »

Alvin: You're right, sodium azide is used to inflate (deploy) airbags. As a SOLID, it's dangerous. BUT, when it burns - as you correctly pointed out - it creates nitrogen. Check with a local scuba shop in your area, ask them what the normal air fill is and you'll find that they'll say about 80% nitrogen and 20% o2 and a few other trace gasses. As a SOLID, sodium azide is toxic. When it burns, it is simply not...it produces nitrogen. Yes, an airbag deployment can cause SHORT TERM, breathing issues for people with asthma...but it doesn't cause pneumonia.

Simply put, nitrogen doesn't cause "chemical burns," or pneumonia and it doesn't kill people. In my testing, I have been IN the car when a total of 154 airbags have deployed (the latest this past Monday). There is a powder...normally it's basically equivalent to baby powder (talc) ... and yes, and there's some smoke - both of which pass quickly but I haven't had pneumonia or suffered any ill effect from the deployment.

Airbags are vented at the back of the airbag in various places to cause the bag to deflate. IF the crash were so bad the some part of the windshield actually did make contact with and tore the airbag allowing some additional gas to escape, it would make virtually ZERO difference in what the driver had been exposed to and would ONLY serve to expel the gas more quickly than normal and in a direction away from the driver. The deployment will create "X" amount of nitrogen and all of that will, at some point, be expelled from the bag. To suggest that a bag which is somehow cut irregularly by the windshield - which would have to be an exceedingly unusual condition in its own right - would somehow then "create" a different volume or release a different quantity of nitrogen than would normally be created and vent as designed is, honestly, incredible.

The article you cite above notes that...
...(the crash was in) in November, 2010, when he was involved in a six-car pile-up collision. Bad as that sounds, Smith was not physically injured. (and) ...Smith began to complain of chest pains and breathing troubles. He was placed on a ventilator at South Tyneside District Hospital in January, 2011, where he died three weeks later. The cause of death was listed as bronchial pneumonia. ..."
Simply put, you don't die 3 weeks later from a non-injury crash and associate that death which was reportedly from "bronchial pneumonia" which can be brought on by a bacteria or aspiration of stomach contents but ther's none of that as a function of the deployment of an airbag. Within the list of causes for pneumonia, we find it can be caused by a number of things but nitrogen - the majority of what we breathe every day - simply isn't one of them.

Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs, not a reaction to something that represents the vast majority of what we're breathing day-to-day. I realize the corner in the UK has opined that this was related (some two months after the fact) to the airbags on the involved car but, in reality, some 2 months after the crash the decedent develops an infection (pneumonia) which they credit to the deployment of his airbags without a stated rationale or connective chain of events/conditions. There's no clear causal relationship demonstrated between the crash, deployment and ultimately the pneumonia and death.

Each year, 5 million Americans develop pneumonia. Each year, about 40,000-plus American are killed in car crashes. To believe that someone hasn't already been killed by the minimal nitrogen created by the airbag is or should be counted, nearly 3 months after the event, as a death "associated" with nitrogen from an airbag is, frankly, a stretch and I'm surprised the coroner would really offer such an opinion.
- Rusty Haight
Collision Safety Institute

Post Reply