[matosortho]

I was in an incident this past friday night. Driving on the george wanshington bridge heading towards the bronx on to the cross bronx expressway, my airbag deployed for no reason at all! This was a scarey incident. Imagine, driving 50 MPH then poof, you get smacked in the face by a bag and the entire compartment fills with smoke and powder. Luckily, I was able to get past the ‘oh sh*t whats going on here’ with an adrenaline rush flowing through my body. My engine cut off and the car began to bog down, I put the car into neutral but still could not see because the bag and smoke. I finally squeezed the bag to be able to see infront of me and luckily I did not hit anyone or veer off into the divider. but was able to glide over to the shoulder for saftey. Upon exiting the vehicle (2001 BMW M3) I began to cough uncontrollable and have had a persistent cough and burning sensation in my lungs since, not to mention the stiff neck I’ve had since (but that has gotten better!). I spoke to BMW and they told me that it was talc in bag and that the bag complies will all US saftey standards and that they chemicals are not harmful. I questioned why it smelled like burned plastic but they did not offer any insite into this. I am currently waiting to see if BMW will pick up the bill for the replacement of faulty parts. Does anyone know if the sensors go bad over time, the car is 11 years old. I’ve checked many sites and have seen that this is not that uncommon. I’m surprized that this is tolerated as this malfunction could have cost me my own life and possibly the lives of others on the road next to me when it happened. Thank God that this did not occur, but it is frightening. Now what to do about this cough (it sounds like I have emphysema. If you have any additional information on anything I’ve listed, please add additional comments. Thank you.