The modern day chassis based ute tops the vehicle sales these days with many used as family transports. Many of these utes are fitted with a bull bar. In Victoria, and I presume other States, VicRoads VSI1 requires all bull bars to comply with ADR 69 which says among other things that "The bull bar must be designed and fitted so that the safety of the vehicle is not adversely affected" and "Demonstration of compliance with ADR 69 or ADR 73 requires full scale barrier testing. Similarly demonstrating that the critical air bag timing mechanism is not affected when a bull bar is fitted may also require full scale barrier testing." VSI1 can be downloaded at!
https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/safety-and-road-rules/vehicle-safety/bullbars
I am concerned about my own and my passengers safety so I decided to look into this matter.
The seller of the bull bar fitted to my vehicle provided me with this
test certificate for my 2017 D-Max.
Bull Bar Test Certificate
I rang the the testing engineer a Mr Grad Zivkovic who informed me that,
1. The
test is carried out on a
test jig.
2. The
test bull bar had a winch fitted.
3. The bull bar and its mounting bracket were "pinned"
4. That he provides the
test certificates for most other bull bar manufactures.
What concerns me about this
test certificate is,
1. its age.
2. it covers 16 different bull bars.
3. many bull bars are fitted without a winch so I would suggest this certificate does not cover them.
4. The bull bar tested was "pinned" and in my case the bull bar fitted to my vehicle was not "pinned".
5. ADR 69 states "designed and fitted" but the tested bull bar was not fitted to a vehicle.
6. If ADR 69 mentions "fitted" then the certificate should make reference to the fitting instructions.
All this leads me to believe that it is no certainty that the air bags in my vehicle will deploy as the manufacturer intended in the event of an accident, hence my concern about
mine and my passengers safety.
My question to readers of this
Forum is, does anyone know of any chassis based utes, with a bull bar fitted that has been involved in some sort of accident where the air bags did not deploy when they should have, or the air bags deployed when they should not have?. Air bags are designed to protect passengers from injury, or limit the extent of any injury.
REMEMBER THAT IF THERE IS AN ACCIDENT AND NO ONE WAS INJURED AND THE AIR BAGS DID NOT DEPLOY, THEN THEY WORKED AS DESIGNED.
It is a failure if in an accident vehicle occupants are injured but no air bags deployed, or in a minor accident the air bags deployed. When an air bag deploys it has a good chance of hurting you, but this is planned to be a lot less severe that what might have happened had the air bags not gone off in an accident.
If I get enough responses which are of concern I will be taking the matter up with VicRoads.
If anyone wants to talk to me about this matter please PM me with a contact number and I will ring you.
Chris