The wife was driving the TCH yesterday and just as she was getting in the brakedown lane to turn into the subdivision, an Axis deer shot across in front of her. NO WORRIES!!! Plenty of room!! But she did nail the brakes with a quick stab of the right footsie. (Yes, she is second in brake reaction time only to her mother!!! ) No squeals, no ABS.... no skids.

About five minutes later she noticed the HVAC system had turned itself off. Everything else was OK.

Any thoughts?? Or more TCH wierdness??

 

My best guess is that in the excitement, she might have gripped the steering wheel with extra firmness or she went to honk the horn and the inadvertently hit the off button...

just guessing.

 

With the excitement of the TCH when I bought mine back in 2007. I also overlooked the temp level buttons and AC, heat off button being also on the steering wheel.

 

I third the steering wheel A/C controls being the reason for what happened. I've done it before when I go to hit the horn (like of someone is about to pull out in front of me or something like that).

 

Thanks Guys.... that's probably the explanation. She does drive with her hand over the cross bar of the steering wheel.

 

Might want to tell her to hold at 9 and 3.
Not an EMT, but I believe many who are injured in airbag deployment have their arms broken if they are in the 'blast zone'.
Supposedly (saw it somewhere), police are now trained to hold the wheel at 4 and 7 for this reason.
In any event, best to never have the arms infront of the bag.

 

I think the Mythbusters did a segment on this. And debunked it.

The upshot was that the "package" of airbag goes straight out before deploying and wouldn't get the hands involved. But you have to be at least 12" away from the wheel or you will get it in the chest / face while it deploys.

If someone "hangs on" the wheel or drives with their arms across the center it will cause problems, but the things are fairly idiot-proof.

But every time something is made idiot proof, they come up with a bigger idiot, so it's a moving target situation, on the whole. (sigh)

 

I always wondered what would happen to the passenger that you see riding with her feet on the dash reading a book (typically on a long trip). Airbag deployment could result in a very interesting position.

 

Ditto on that...

I had the HVAC turn off 3 or 4 times before I realized that each had been preceded by horn honks. (I don't honk very often...only when the other driver is an idiot).

 

an Axis deer? German, Japanese or Italian?