Despite all of the negative press around Toyota having stuck accelerator issues, there are rumors circulating around the web that Toyota has yet another issue it is sweeping under the rug. Several accounts of the Toyota Yaris having airbag issues have been presented, and according to the consumers affected Toyota has done nothing but given excuses and swept the problem under the rug.
The following video is one account of the 2010 Toyota Yaris airbag controversy. According to YouTube user mckulley1, their 2010 Toyota Yaris was involved in a front end collision which was hard enough to deploy the airbags, yet they failed to deploy. "Then, on 10-26-2010 my husband, Andrew Mitchell, was in a high speed frontal collision while driving the Toyota Yaris. The Yaris was hit, the read end was lifted up, and the Yaris was spun to face in the opposite direction. Andrew was taken by ambulance to Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital. His driver side airbag did not deploy!"
According to their video, they contacted Toyota with the issue only to be ignored. "Toyota looked at our photos, informed us that they were not looking further into why the airbags did not deploy, and closed our case. They also accused us of tampering with the Yaris by removing the bumper and cutting the hood. Neither of which we did as the Yaris was on a tow lot two hours from our home." - YouTube user mckulley1
Looking at the pictures of the airbag sensors as provided by mckulley1, it appears that they weren't destroyed and should have been in perfect working order. According to wikipedia, "The airbag sensor is a MEMS accelerometer which is a small integrated circuit with integrated micro mechanical elements. The microscopic mechanical element moves in response to rapid deceleration, and this motion causes a change in capacitance, which is detected by the electronics on the chip that then sends a signal to fire the airbag." So why did the airbag not go off? Was the impact that destroyed the front end of this Yaris, spun it around, and put a man in the hospital not enough force to trip the accelerometer?
That's not the only account of a faulty airbag in the Yaris. According to Consumer Affairs, there is yet another account of a Yaris airbag which failed to deploy. "I was struck in my 2010 Toyota Yaris at the driver side front which caused my car to roll completely over and end up back on the wheels. Good news- I did not sustain any serious injury. Bad news- none of the airbags deployed at the time of impact or during the roll-over, even though the airbag casing on the driver's side was cracked open (you could see the compressed airbag). I liked the car but I am not confident about the airbag system."
So is it the sensor, or the airbag units themselves? It might be the actual airbag units themselves, if the following account from Consumer Affairs gives us any evidence. "on August/6/2010 my son was involved in a car accident with the Yaris, doing a left conversion another car hit hard the Yaris at the front right fender, it was a hard hit, car is to be considered totaled, half of the engine compartment is destroyed. Both frontal air bags deployed, but even wearing seat belt and despite the air bag, the passenger hit hard the windshield with his head, broken the windshield. I think the air bag deployed late or offered not enough protection. I have pictures. Hard bruises. I thought air bags were made to protect from this to happen."
Investigating further, I found that there is also some chatter on the forums regarding the Toyota Yaris airbag. A user named, slothman86 at YarisWorld.com hit a GMC Safari van in a 40 mile per hour zone which resulted in an airbag failure.
"No one was hurt, luckily I had my phone on me! It was a 40 mile per hour zone. The airbags did not deploy. It is BS that they didn't deploy esp at 35-40 mph." -slothman86
Reading further into the thread, there are other accounts of Yaris airbag failure as seen below:
"sux man! my airbags did not deploy when my yaris was totaled @ 70mph" - blackyaris
"when i got into i craash a few months ago the bags did not deploy, and i was going around the same speed. sorry to here about that"- maxxman420
"My airbags didn't deploy when I hit the deer that ran in front of me at 30 mph, so i guess it's adaptive electronics" - bobselectric
Watch the Yaris airbag failure video here
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