Spontaneous Airbag Deployment

Hello all,

I have a 2008 Chevy Trailblazer. A few days ago, I was driving to the Inland Sea with my friend and his 60+ mother. We took the “highway” through the desert, but as we all know, there are a few minor dunes to negotiate. It was when we negotiated one of these dunes that my side curtain airbags (both sides) spontaneously deployed. Obviously, it scared the living cr.p out of us.

After we realized what happened, I drove the car a few feet to a safe area and inspected the car. There is absolutely no damage the bodywork or the undercarriage of the car and the car drives perfectly. The only visible damage, is the obvious from the deployment of the airbags, and the fact that the front seat belts have locked up, rendering them useless.

The car is still under warranty and I took the car back to the dealer. He agreed that it was a warranty issue. He sent me to the service center, but the guy there said that it was my own fault and that it is NOT covered under warranty (although the mechanic at Chevy disagreed with him). I realize that there's a certain potential of damaging your car when driving off road, and I had anticipated a lot of scenarios, but definitely not this one. I also know that no insurance cover driving in the desert, but this is not an insurance issue, but a warranty issue – and nowhere in the warranty does it state that you can't drive in the desert.

I have driven quite a bit in the desert in this car, and done maneuvers that are more demanding than this one, but due to my friends older mother's wish to “just see” the desert, we took an easy drive.

Now my questions are as follows:

1)The service center has pulled the Event Data Recorder (EDR) and says that, if it shows that I have been in a situation where the airbags should deploy, the warranty will not cover. My feeling is that, of course, the EDR will show that the airbags should deploy, otherwise it wouldn't have deployed. Does anyone have any experience with faulty sensors on this kind of car? I know in some cases there have been issues when the sensors have been wet, but what about dust?

2)This place is a bit of a wild west, in terms of consumer rights. If they continue to claim that this was my own fault, is there an agency or anything like that here in Qatar, where I can complain?

Finally, I would much appreciate if any of you experienced off roaders out there have any ideas or suggestions on about how to go about this.

Thanks a lot..