[kara37]

I rear-ended a Mercedes once and the air bags in their car most definitely deployed.

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There are no air bag sensors in the rear of vehicles. There are only side and front sensors. Although, I guess if you got hit hard enough from the rear, it might crumble the sides enough to hit the side sensor and deploy them.

The reason you don’t need sensors in the rear, is because you get thrown backwards from a rear end collisions. The seat and head rest is your protection.

[Princeton Drive Irregulars]

initially… then the bodies are launched forward

[norcal joe]

There are no air bag sensors in the rear of vehicles. There are only side and front sensors. Although, I guess if you got hit hard enough from the rear, it might crumble the sides enough to hit the side sensor and deploy them.

Air bag sensors do no not work by something hitting them. They work by measuring the acceleration or deceleration, in all directions, that the sensor experiences (which would be pretty much uniform for the whole car during a collision).

[2111USMC]

My apologies. Now that I’m reviewing the wreck in my mind, the Mercedes was pushed into the van ahead of them. The damage to the van was so light that the driver didn’t even want to fill out a report. $3K damage to my Ford Taurus. Totaled the Mercedes.

It was stupid on my part. I was gawking at an accident in the other lane and by the time I realized the traffic in front of me was stopped it was too late to come to a full stop.