Well I did it, I rear ended someone last nigh. Pics are attached and I have no idea extent of damage. Air Bags did not deploy but OnStar (upon impact) came over the speakers and said "Impact Detected, Contacting OnStar", kind of cool.

Car was towed to local Acura Dealership. More to follow as I get information

 

Whoa! Sorry to hear this/see this. Looks like a pretty hard impact yet bags did not deploy. What did you hit and how did they fare? I assume you and passengers are OK.

 

Wow dude that sucks. I dont get why the airbags didnt deploy though. That looks like a hard hit. Glad your ok though!

 

Was this a case of car vs SUV? Looks a lot like the damage to my 2G Legend when I hit a SUV. My bumper was untouched, just a very mild set of scratches to the top cover, but the headlights, hood, grill, fender....history. No air bag deployment because it was under 12 mph. Actually probably under 5.

 

oh snap!!! Thank God you're okay! wow!

 

glad you're ok!

definitely looks like you hit something bigger than you.

 

And that's why 05 or 06 > 07.

OnStar for the win!

 

Owie. I know I'd be kicking myself about now.

I hope you're doing OK and hopefully your car will be back in service very soon.

I agree with Qest, that's the one good thing about OnStar. They will find you if you've crashed. That is extra peace of mind.

 

Another good thing about the 06, yeah onstar and the Tech package.
With the tech package-its less likely to have an ooops.
When I have been distracted, and about to pull an oops, all I need is to hear that beep beep from the brake warning, and I am all over it.
The better part of that warning system is this, if the system is warning you, the brakes are already activated for maximum braking if the driver takes control and if not, the system will try to stop when you reach the point of no return.

 

Sorry to hear about the accident. Glad everyone is okay. I am very surprized the air bag didn't go off. looks like you went under their bumper. Keep us posted.

 

What an awful feeling. Been there, fortunately not for some time. The RL did its most important job though, and that is protecting you. Glad you're OK.

 

Ouch.

That hurts to look at. Glad you're OK.

 

WOW! That's a lot of front damage.... hopefully no one was injuried? It sends chills through my body when I see your picture. Hope everything works out for you.

 

Damn I feel bad for you but glad your safe. Take a look at the first picture, those white blocks look like cut foam or styrofoam. What is that, road dampening material?

 

holy shit.....how long have you had the car? sad to see a new car like that in the state that it's in.....you don't seem to care too much judging from your post though??? gotta be more careful i still can't forgive myself for my 2 rear ends (that happened at very low speed with virtually no damabe whatsoever, just very slight scraches). The damage to that rl looks excessive i almost didn't recognise it as an rl at 1st..if it's not totalled it'll prolly be around 15-20k to repair and your insurace would rape you 4 that...and if they do repair it it will never be new again.

 

Well this was my second 2nd Gen RL as my original Silver RL that I obtained in Oct of 04 was a Lemon for which Acura replaced with the Gray one (June 05) that I wrecked. There were three cars involved in the accident, my car an Accord and a Chevy Truck. I was in the far rear, then Accord then Truck up front. Truck had no damage but Accord had both front and rear damage. Nobody was hurt in any of the vehicles but my car looks like crap.

Acura collision will be giving me a repair quote on Mon. Claim was already submitted to State Farm yesterday (sat).

More to follow as I get updates.

 

Yes is was part of the bumper and part of it ended up in the accords Tail pipe.

 

Interesting, thanks for the follow up and again, glad to hear your ok.

 

Is anyone else curious why the bags did not deploy?

 

Ouch man that is not good. But I got something that really worries me. Why did ONSTAR work and the airbags did not go off? It says in the manual if the airbags go off On-Star will contact the police of the accident automatically.

That is enough front end damage that they should have went off.

 

Don't these cars have intelligent airbags? Does the vehicle speed at the time of the impact matter in terms of airbag deployment? If you look at the damage the front passenger side doesn't look as bad as the driver side - it doesn't look like a straight on collision.

A similar thing happened with my wife's 2006 MDX recently. She was rear-ended pretty hard and pushed into the car in front of her. Airbags did not deploy but OnStar came on automatically and the advisor called the police. She's getting a new front bumper, rear bumper, and rear liftgate, but the damage wasn't as bad in the front of the car as that of the original poster.

 

As most of you have pointed out the damage is primarily above the bumper. The following is my hypothesis as to why the air bags did not deploy.

I suspect that the grill, hood, and upper components absorbed the energy as each gave way at a less jarring rate than a direct contact on the bumper transmitted to the frame. Air bags deploy pretty violently and can cause injuries. As a precaution the sensors only deploy the airbags where there is sufficient enough instant force to warrant it.

He wasn't injured because the other safety systems were adequate to protect him given the rate of deceleration. Firing off the air bags in this situation would not have helped the situation, and would have posed the opportunity for additional injury.

In other words, they worked like they were designed to.

Just my

You get what you pay for.

 

The 2006 RL Safety blurb:

http://hondanews.com/CatID3007?mid=2...asc&archives=t

states that the RL is equipped with dual-stage, dual threshold, advanced airbags for the driver and front passenger, and are designed to provide protection for the head and chest during a moderate to severe front collision, while simultaneously helping to reduce injuries. I had to do a little research to find out what that statement meant.

Dual Stage means that each airbag inflator has two stages (inflators). During a severe collision both stages fire at the same time to provide immediate inflation of the airbag. But during a moderate collision the igniters fire in sequence, slowing the deployment rate of the airbags.

Dual Threshold means that the inflation trigger point changes depending on whether the sensors detect the passenger has a seatbelt latched (higher inflation trigger point) or unlatched (lower inflation trigger point).

Advanced means that the airbag system works in conjunction with seat weight and position sensors. If there is no front passenger, the airbag will not inflate. If the system decides that an infant seat or small child is in the passenger seat, it will not inflate. If the system decides that the so called 5th percentile female is in the driver position (e.g., very close to the wheel, 10" or less), only a single stage will ignite regardless of the severity of the crash.

Trigger points in older airbag systems have typically been set extremely low, 6-12 mph, but companies like Mercedes, BMW and Volvo have long programmed in a much higher threshold, about 18 mph. I cannot find any specific info on the Acura RL threshold points, but like most newer systems it is probably set on the high side, which is appropriate, according to testing. I perused FMVSS 208, Occupant Crash Protection, but could not find anything on thresholds, and after understanding a little bit about what it does, would not expect to find such thresholds actually put into regulation.

As for OnStar, the same sensors that detected the impact and decided that threshold for airbag deployment was not reached, was the same system that OnStar uses to detect and signal an "impact". I believe the system worked as designed, and the airbags were designed not to go off.

Thank goodness no one was hurt!

By the way, the Owner's Manual states:

If your vehicle has a moderate to severe impact. Even if your airbags do not inflate, your dealer should inspect the driver’s seat position sensor and the front passenger’s weight sensors to make sure they are operating properly.

So make sure that is done during the repairs, or afterwards at the dealer. I am sure the car would tell you if the SRS sensors were not working, however! IMHO, the crash protection systems worked as designed, with the ACE body structure and seatbelts working to protect the passenger. Again, thank goodness there were no injuries!

 

The airbags didn't deploy because they wouldn't have been useful in this case. If the driver has a bloody nose from hitting the steering wheel, the system failed, but otherwise, they saved lots of money in repair bills by not deploying. Additionally, the airbag could get in the way of steering or distract the driver who may need to continue to control the car in a mild collision.

I'm not a big fan of front airbags. I think they're not worth the money and that too many people figure airbag=safe when the airbag is one of the least necessary safety systems on a car. For example, rather than the manufacturer of an econobox spending that money on front airbags, how about stability control instead?

 

I wholeheartedly disagree there. Yes it's better to avoid an accident, but airbags have saved thousands of lives.

 

Uggh....

Sorry to see and hear that damage. Happy to hear that no one is injured. I am happy for you "dtrose" for not getting injured.

I am sure that you would not like the damage. I had a scratch on the other day on my new RL and had a very bad mood on that complete day.

I can imagine how sas you would feel for the damage. Well Good Luck dtrose

 

Found this over in the TL forum. Find it hard to believe that the airbags weren't responsible for him walking away from this accident with no injuries.

 

That would be the side-curtain airbags which I am a fan of, but also the door crash beams, the high-strength steal structure, the reinforced B-pillar, the design to direct the force of the side impact around the occupants, and the side air bags.

Of those things I mentioned in the 2nd paragraph, if you told me I was going to be in a side-impact accident and they were going to remove one of the aforementioned safety features of my choice, I'd pick the side air bags.

Air bags have saved lives, but that's a lot more rare than people think. Mostly it's seatbelts, crumple zones, and safety cages.

What pisses me off even more is that an impact speed over 45 mph in a passenger car is often fatal, whereas I've seen race cars wreck at more than double that speed and the driver walk away. Why can't we get that kind of crash protection in our daily drivers?

 

you must be joking to ask that kind of a question...
you of course can have it, for a price.
Its a matter of cost, and if you purchase an Enzo, or any other exotic car, they are constructed with that kind of crash protection (usually) and rightfully so when you pay $1Mil for a car.
What do you think, that its just a few pennies in todays manufacturing process to mass produce a car that will let walk away from a high speed crash?
And also I disagree with your premise on airbags.
Lastly, I can think of one way that would dramatically lower the accident rate, and lower the death rate....
How about some REAL driving lessons, more like the german model?
How about some driving tests that really do merit the driver and their skills?
How about, if you cant speak english, and unless you are driving on an international license (for tourists) that you cant drive on the road!
All of these suggestions would cost pennies or nothing to impliment, and would make the roads safer for all of us.

 

i agree totally, we have a flawed education system. it's part of the reason what's forcing manufacturers to add all this safety, thus never-ending weight increase on the cars...and on and on.

 

And quite honestly the racing community is a much more safety concious group than your average driver. Particularly if a driver isn't wearing a 5-point harness, helmets and HANS devices (NASCAR), they don't race.

It's a challenge getting the public to wear a regular seatbelt, tell me how you're going to convince them to wear a 5 point harness.

Yes crush zones have helped, airbags have evolved to deploy at different speeds, and you have seat belt pretensioners.

I've seen people with broken ribs from seatbelts, should we argue that seatbelts should be eliminated?

As for your comment of crashes above 45mph being fatal, that used to be the case, but due to the advances in crush zones, seatbelts, and yes airbags, these crashes are becoming survivable. The RL earned 5-stars in it's crash test.

Anyone remember seeing this video?

http://www.progressive.com/video/05_AcuraRL_HSF.asx

 

Correction, he had injurys. Broken Ribs, collapsed lung, and clavicle. Also cuts. The Airbags (side) are what saved him.

 

I stand corrected, but as we've pointed out, the airbags have allowed him to talk about it.

 

Here's an example of what can happen even if you are driving a high end sports car, and still dont know how to drive.
Caution: its graphic.
http://uselessjunk.net/viewtopic.php...66ce16b19188fb

 

dam thats big impact...should make a recall if it didnt deployed

 

It did... but it was a convertible... and thats about as much protection for your head as a pillow is when a car goes boom.

 

Well estimate came back from body shop at $11,693.00. Parts have been ordered and then will take another 2.5 weeks.

Good times for me as I drive a Ford Explorer.