Questions have been raised within the roadside safety community
regarding the effectiveness of airbags in longitudinal barrier crashes.
One issue raised is whether or not an oblique impact with an energy
absorbing object such as a guardrail is sufficient to deploy the frontal airbags. Assuming the frontal airbags do deploy, another issue is
whether airbags designed specifically for frontal collisions are effective
in reducing injury in the oblique crash mode typical of longitudinal
barrier crashes.