Don't drive home wet

We all expect our car’s airbag to work in the case of emergency.  So what happens when it has been automatically shut off without warning?We thought something was wrong with the airbag shutoff switch in our 2012 Subaru Impreza.  We’d be driving along, and all of a sudden the passenger airbag would shut off, leaving the passenger unprotected.So we called the dealer and had the switch checked. No problem, we were told. Maybe the passenger shifted her weight and the switch turned off.Then, this week, a service attendant mentioned that the on-off switch had nothing to do with weight. It was based on the amount of water in a person’s body.The light went on in our minds. It turns out that the airbag would shut off after a few minutes when we were driving home from the beach and the passenger was wearing a wet swim suit or sitting on a wet towel! It would stay off until the seat dried out.We checked this out. Here’s how one Subaru dealer explains this on their website: Most Occupant Detection Systems measure the weight of the front seat passenger, to determine if the front passenger seat airbag should deploy.All 2012 and 2013 Impreza and 2013 BRZ models use a new type of Occupant Detection System called Electrostatic Capacitance Sensor ODS. This system does not use weight to determine whether to turn the Occupant Detection System ON and OFF. The Electrostatic Capacitance represents a material's capability of storing an electrical charge.  When water or a...
Source: Running a hospital - Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs