On my way to my first job site this morning I drove past a spot where a large rotten tree limb had fallen on the road. About 50 yards down the road there was a recent model Toyota SUV, a Highlander I think, with no obvious body damage, but looking like all the airbags had deployed.
It doesn't look like the branch fell on the Toyota, could the car running it over have caused all the bags to go off?
might have hit it and went on, or, could have been a strange coincidence
In reply to HappyAndy:
Yes.
Sweet jumps are bad ju ju for air bag sensors. Hanging 4 wheels in the air at an odd angle screams impending rollover. Whacking the chassis right under the sensor really hard with a big stick says something like "WTF! Deploy!!!".
Maybe the Highlander was the only one around to hear the tree fall in the woods.
How big was it and how much boom/shake could it have caused?
Airbag sensors are usually magnetic aren't they? If the force from an impact (any impact) is strong enough to overcome the magnetic field, then the magnets separate and the airbags deploy.
I'd think the car running over a big tree branch could be enough to set off the airbags. Autocross cornering sets off airbags sometimes.
STM317 wrote: Airbag sensors are usually magnetic aren't they? If the force from an impact (any impact) is strong enough to overcome the magnetic field, then the magnets separate and the airbags deploy.
They have 3 axis accelerometers in multiple locations.
I would say yes.
Airbags will deploy before a car ever hits the ground in a roll, which is comforting, but also creates the potential for errors.
Didn't a CTS-V's airbags go off during an autocross?
In reply to mtn:
More than one. Not mine, but that's probably because I'm slow. 
mtn wrote: Didn't a CTS-V's airbags go off during an autocross?
There was also a couple running around with D3's brake kit that would pull so many Gs stopping that OnStar would call the driver thinking he had been in a frontal collision.
We had a guy in a newish Camaro pop the side airbags under cornering load / yaw on of our autocrosses. On street tires. In a tiny lot where it was impossible to build any real speed.
In reply to Huckleberry:
In a Toyota it says "WTF?! Deproy!"
In reply to AngryCorvair:
Did you say Deep Roy?
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