Side/window Air Bag problems of the 2011 Chevrolet Equinox

Chevy Equinox was traveling in the slow lane on highway. Side airbags deployed erroneously, no contact to the vehicle.

Large pickup truck with snow plow ran stop sign at intersection, snow plow blade hit left side/left front of car, at speed of about 45 mph. Impact forced car off the road, into a pile of frozen ice and snow. Damage was severe enough that left front door was almost sliced off the car with serious body damage to left front and left front corner. All doors were jammed shut. Neither front nor side airbags deployed. Seat belt on driver did not tighten up either. Damage also to seat frame and dashboard.

The contact owns a 2011 Chevrolet Equinox. The contact stated that the driver and passenger side air bags deployed erroneously. The contact suffered injuries to the back, neck and fingers from the inadvertent deployment. The vehicle was neither repaired nor diagnosed. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 33,000.

I drove the 2011 Equinox to the gym parking lot, from unpaved to a paved parking lot. I drove slowly with the speed about 5-8 mph, while looking for a parking space . Suddenly, the air bag in front of me, and the other air bags deployed with a bad smell. My right arm and hand were injured and bleeding, and my index finger was hurting. The next day, I found more blueness in both arms, and they were swollen, and my index finger was still hurting. The police officer told me this was not a car accident, and he was not supposed to give a report. I contacted Chevrolet the same day, 04/02/13. A third party inspector did an inspection on 04/08/13 and sent the report to the company. The reason I bought this car was for its size that seemed more safe than a small car. I don't understand. 1. How and why the air bags deployed with no car accident? 2. Why all the side air bags deployed with only the driver in the car and no one in the back seat? 3. From my understanding, the air bags are supposed to protect people in a car accident, not injure the driver without a car accident. 4. In this situation, the air bag hurt the driver, would I be able to use this car to drive on a rough road or a country road? I was informed to call a number. I called the number twice and left messages. Voice message stated, I would be contacted by a case manager within 24 hours. But, more than 24 hours had passed, and no one contacted me. My car is still at the Chevrolet dealer. Please help me, and also help the company to make safe cars for consumers.

1. Passenger side airbags not working when my wife sits in seat--light comes on air bag bags off ! 09/ 09/ 11 2. We took car to dealer ( o'rielly chevy , 6160 east broadway , tucson , az. 85711, 520-571-2270 ) did not fix problem ! a dealer claims bags work fine as long as my wife doesn't use her cushion !!! 3. Last dealer visit was 03 / 16/ 12, to no avail. No resolution !!!! my wife has a bad back, 4 vertebra lower back out of alignment ! must use a donut cushion ! dealer tells us, that's the way it is !!! I don't believe that. We had to rent another vehicle while ours was in for paint !! we rented a chevy malibu, three days, my wife used her cushion. Yep, you got it the air bags worked fine all time ( was a 2011 ) my problem is this : people have disabilities, they in some cases have to use aides ! if the airbags work in another chevy, why do they not work in our Equinox ???? from a quality assurance standpoint, this is not right, in my view, sensors are not positioned properly ! thanks for your time,.