After the accident that happened with Nikolai Karachentsov, clearly unverified information about the state of his car immediately appeared in the yellow press, which immediately grew like specimens of snowball. In the end, VW dealers were in an ambiguous position.
However, we are not going to go into issues of journalistic ethics, but want to provide “results of visual analysis”. Unfortunately or fortunately, the photo material could not be obtained, since the actor’s relatives categorically refuse to give permission to photograph the damaged car - probably for certain moral and ethical reasons, which we will not touch on in the automobile newspaper.
So, not a single airbag on the driver’s side worked. The main and only reason for this is that the main blow of the car about the roadside pillar fell on the rear right side of the body. Accordingly, the left side airbag would have worked if it hit the left side, and both front airbags, both driver and passenger, would have worked when it hit the front, that is, from the front. In the case of a codiagonal strike in the front corner of the car, for example, from the front right, three pillows would work - both front and right side. But since the blow fell to the rear right and was directed to the center of the car, that is, it was of a codiagonal character, not a single driver's airbag, neither the left side nor the front one, worked, but the right side one worked, which allowed the passenger to get off with minor injuries. In the reverse movement after the collision, he hit his head on the windshield and received a slight concussion. Why the front airbags do not work in other situations is another matter, and it is not due to chance, but to safety procedures established according to world standards, for example, according to the EuroNCAP system, according to which this can aggravate the consequences of the accident.
The front of the car from this point of view is absolutely clean. We did not find a single dent or even a scratch. Under the hood, everything is also in order: no oil drips, distorted or distorted parts and visible deformations of the engine compartment. By the way, the first thing the technical director did was start the engine. The steering wheel also rotates quite freely, and in general the driver’s workplace is not suspicious. Sitting behind the wheel and looking forward, it is easy to think that nothing would have happened here if it were not for the noticeable roll to the right towards the deformed rear right side of the body. Therefore, we can say that the car honestly worked according to the given program and the driver’s front airbag did not work due to the impact on the pillar, or, if you want, the impact of the pillar on the body, came from the side diametrically opposite from the driver.
