three questions on EDR and airbag deployment for cold-case investigation

emncaityemncaity Member Posts: 3
edited October 2019 in Saturn
Anybody have solid info on the following re a '96 Saturn SL2?

-- whether the EDR in this model would have recorded hard braking in the 5 seconds preceding airbag deployment;

-- whether the seat belt had to be fastened for the airbag to fire; and

-- whether the EDR in this model would've recorded date and clock time of impact-and-airbag events.


Cited sources would be nice, if possible.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Comments

  • emncaityemncaity Member Posts: 3
    Should've mentioned -- it's a missing-persons and possible murder case.
  • thecardoc3thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,824
    edited October 2019
    emncaity said:

    Anybody have solid info on the following re a '96 Saturn SL2?

    -- whether the EDR in this model would have recorded hard braking in the 5 seconds preceding airbag deployment;

    http://www.airbagcrash.com/samplecrashdata.html
    emncaity said:


    -- whether the seat belt had to be fastened for the airbag to fire; and

    No, the seatbelt would not have to be fastened for the airbag to deploy during an accident. In later models with multistage deploment strategies seatbelt usage can cause the system to modify the deployment intensity. Essentially that means reduce the deployment with seatbelt use if possible, while no seatbelt usage would result in a much more energenic activation.
    emncaity said:


    -- whether the EDR in this model would've recorded date and clock time of impact-and-airbag events.

    http://www.airbagcrash.com/sdmairbagtechinfo.html

    Doubtful. If the vehicle had OnStar and an active subscription the OnStar system would have recorded that.
    emncaity said:


    Cited sources would be nice, if possible.

    Thanks in advance for any help.

    http://www.airbagcrash.com/sdmairbagtechinfo.html

    The bottom of that page has an image of the Bosch (formerly Vetronix) data retrieval tool. For details about what it can recover and all of your other questions you will find links on that page as well.
  • emncaityemncaity Member Posts: 3
    Thanks so much for all that.
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