Bronco meets cow (not in a good way)

[broncobase1]

There are 2 sensors on the frontal part of the Bronco. The minimum necessary force needed to activate a sensor can be as low as 10mph in a Ford SUV. It has nothing to do with G-Force (gravity) but that of delta-v (velocity) or change of.

The velocity change driving and applying the brakes harshly and hitting a dead weight object (cow) would double the velocity change alone. The damage that occurred from op's Bronco is in the middle of the 2 sensor zones. There are seat belt sensors also that could prohibit frontal airbag deployment due to seatbelts not being worn in an accident to avoid serious bodily injury.

Either way he should inquire to Ford about the airbags not deploying. Because if by chance later in life a serious accident happens and the airbags again did not deploy, it could mean life or death. So where is in your answer logical? It is not, and if the insurance adjuster is trained and experienced he or she may come to the same conclusion that they should of deployed and add additional remarks to have the sensors checked during vehicles repair process.

It has nothing to do with the location of sensors and everything to do with G forces. Typically when airbags go off its a serious accident and often the vehicle is totaled, this is a fry cry from that. Yes I can see bags going off if you hit a wall or tree at 10 MPH, but a cow is not a wall as it will move when being hit and this makes all the difference (physics 101). We will have to agree to disagree on this one and that's okay, but I sure wouldn't want my bags going off in something this minor.

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[SCBronco1]

It should have mooved out of the way

Really . . . I got to give you a fist bump for the terrible dad joke.

 

[jacobim]

It is surprising but I have seen several vehicles that hit livestock without airbag deployment. I don't know for sure but I would guess it would be that large animals are impacted above the sensors? Good to see that you are ok and your Bronco should be fairly easily repairable, it just may take awhile.

If nobody was injured badly I would be glad the airbags didn't go off as that would have likely totaled the vehicle.

 

[flip]

I'm in at $11K+.

 

[TheBear]

It has nothing to do with the location of sensors and everything to do with G forces. Typically when airbags go off its a serious accident and often the vehicle is totaled, this is a fry cry from that. Yes I can see bags going off if you hit a wall or tree at 10 MPH, but a cow is not a wall as it will move when being hit and this makes all the difference (physics 101). We will have to agree to disagree on this one and that's okay, but I sure wouldn't want my bags going off in something this minor.

Agreed. And for Gumpy........delta V is acceleration, which is force (g-force or whatever you want to call it). If the deceleration isn't quick enough then no need for airbags. OP did not say that his head hit the steering wheel.

 

[Tex]

Got to agree that based on the images, subjectively speaking the airbags shouldn't have deployed in something this minor (relatively speaking). I've hit a cow as well that popped the bags, going 40+mph. It absolutely destroyed my 4runner and managed to bend the frame via a-arm mounting points, but there was so little change in velocity that my face never touched the bags and I wasn't even wearing a seatbelt. The airbags shouldn't have activated but the wiring was damaged (shorted the wires together) during the impact, so the sensors themselves likely didn't activate. Had another situation where again, I wasn't wearing a seatbelt and the airbags went off. Wife was driving, 75mph in new expedition and hit a deer. I was trying to fix a loose plastic cover on the underside of the rearview mirror and unbuckled to reach it. Was sitting in the seat like normal with the cover in front of me trying to bend a little clip to give it more tension when the deer hit. Airbags went off and again no part of my body touched them. Honestly wasn't sure what happened because I wasn't watching...I didn't feel any deceleration and the airbags themselves were louder than the impact, I thought they must have malfunctioned or something. The deer completely trashed all of that plastic crap in the front end, bent a quarter panel and the hood, and bent the radiator all the way to the engine. It ended up being close to a $30K repair (half of which was airbag related costs) with absolutely no frame damage involved. Insurance adjuster and body shop both said the airbags shouldn't have activated, but they did anyway because the sensor wiring was physically damaged by the deer and wasn't activated via acceleration forces. The worst part is there's no real bumper options for an expedition to prevent this kind of damage and there's still a ton of idiot deer all around us. In both cases, the damage done was far in excess of OP's Bronco and the airbags shouldn't have deployed.


TL;DR animals are squishy and can cause considerable damage to flimsy stuff in low energy impacts, but they're usually not heavy enough to activate airbags unless they're really big and you're going really fast. The visible damage doesn't appear to merit airbag deployment and for good reason...you only want that airbag to deploy if your vehicle decelerates fast enough to need it. Airbags are expensive, they can potentially cause more bodily harm if activated when not needed, and when they do legitimately activate, it often means your vehicle is a total loss.

 

[carmigo]

Yikes, RIP to the cow. We will never MOOve on

 

[cyberfalco]

Well, the cow should have seen your grill lights and moved out of the way

 

[Tacoman]

This is the only reason I've considered the ugly ass rough country push bars. I still think I'll go with the bumper mounted push bar though.

Love the minimal bar i put on.....

 

[Tex]

Love the minimal bar i put on.....

Most of the steak and hamburger mass is higher than that bar, you'd likely be protected from its knees though. Most of a deer's mass is higher than that bar too.

 

[Ogre]

Love the minimal bar i put on.....

That's super sexy.

 

[projectbadlands]

I am still in udder disbelief.

 

[Agrod]

I did the insurance claim. Waiting for the inspector to check the vehicle. Did a part list. I'm probably going to purchase the parts in a dealer in Florida and using a bulk shipping service to get them to PR. The local dealers suck.

Not gonna lie, this repair looks DIYable. Obviously, the body/paint work must be done at a shop, but is limited to the hood and lower valance. Everything else is purely mechanical and bolts on. This video shows a time-lapse of the front end installation. I'm used to working on Audi and BMWs, where they make everything 10 times more complicated that it should be.

Here's the part list I put together:

 

[broncobase1]

Got to agree that based on the images, subjectively speaking the airbags shouldn't have deployed in something this minor (relatively speaking). I've hit a cow as well that popped the bags, going 40+mph. It absolutely destroyed my 4runner and managed to bend the frame via a-arm mounting points, but there was so little change in velocity that my face never touched the bags and I wasn't even wearing a seatbelt. The airbags shouldn't have activated but the wiring was damaged (shorted the wires together) during the impact, so the sensors themselves likely didn't activate. Had another situation where again, I wasn't wearing a seatbelt and the airbags went off. Wife was driving, 75mph in new expedition and hit a deer. I was trying to fix a loose plastic cover on the underside of the rearview mirror and unbuckled to reach it. Was sitting in the seat like normal with the cover in front of me trying to bend a little clip to give it more tension when the deer hit. Airbags went off and again no part of my body touched them. Honestly wasn't sure what happened because I wasn't watching...I didn't feel any deceleration and the airbags themselves were louder than the impact, I thought they must have malfunctioned or something. The deer completely trashed all of that plastic crap in the front end, bent a quarter panel and the hood, and bent the radiator all the way to the engine. It ended up being close to a $30K repair (half of which was airbag related costs) with absolutely no frame damage involved. Insurance adjuster and body shop both said the airbags shouldn't have activated, but they did anyway because the sensor wiring was physically damaged by the deer and wasn't activated via acceleration forces. The worst part is there's no real bumper options for an expedition to prevent this kind of damage and there's still a ton of idiot deer all around us. In both cases, the damage done was far in excess of OP's Bronco and the airbags shouldn't have deployed.


TL;DR animals are squishy and can cause considerable damage to flimsy stuff in low energy impacts, but they're usually not heavy enough to activate airbags unless they're really big and you're going really fast. The visible damage doesn't appear to merit airbag deployment and for good reason...you only want that airbag to deploy if your vehicle decelerates fast enough to need it. Airbags are expensive, they can potentially cause more bodily harm if activated when not needed, and when they do legitimately activate, it often means your vehicle is a total loss.

Great post. My sister hit a moose at highway speed and destroyed her crew cab F250. I agree certainly there are times airbags should and will go off when hitting animals, it all depends on the forces involved. As we should all be ware of by now with the zillions of recalls, there are risks associated with airbag deployment. Air bag deployment is often used as the definition of a serious accident, and there is a reason for it. Sure the accident in this post will be expensive with everything that needs to be replaced, but its minor with respect to structual damage.

 

[broncobase1]

Love the minimal bar i put on.....

I like that bar too. Its minimalist and doesn't increase the length of the Bronco by much. I have the factory bar on my lowly Base and I like it, but I like this better.

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