Air Bag On-off Switch problems of the 1999 Mercedes Benz E320

The contact owns a 1999 Mercedes Benz E320. While the contact was attempting to remove the key from the ignition switch, the front driver's side air bag abruptly deployed without any force to the vehicle. The vehicle was was taken to an authorized dealer however, they were unable to determine the cause of failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer had not been made aware of the air bag malfunction. The approximate failure mileage was 105,000. The VIN was unavailable.

I was pulling out of my driveway, going ~5 mph, when I smelled something, there was an explosion by my head and the air curtains on the driver’s side self-deployed. After that my husband, a mechanic, deactivated the srs using the switch on the console of the car. However, approximately one year later, the air curtains and airbag on the passenger side self-deployed while he was driving the car. Then on or about July 31, 2014, a clear day, around 8:30 a. M. When my husband was driving the car at approximately 50 mph, he heard an explosion, the seatbelt retracted with such force that it caused a painful blow to his chest and pinned him into the car. He was able to drive the car off the road. At first he thought he might have been shot because of the noise from the explosion, it was hard to breathe and painful. However, after a few minutes, he realized it was the seatbelt and struggled to release it. The seatbelt put a gash in his left shoulder through his clothes. (we have pictures of the gash. ) in all of these incidents, we have not been in an accident, road conditions were good, we have not been speeding, and, therefore, did not call the police. Since then, we have taken the car off of the road because the seat belt no longer works, and driving the car without the seat belt would violate a new jersey statute. We're also concerned that there are more airbags that have the potential of spontaneously self-deploying while the car is being driven. We’ve contacted mercedes and were told to have the car towed to a dealer and pay for a diagnosis. We feel that the car should be recalled by mercedes because it is unsafe to drive and has the potential to cause an accident.