How do air springs cause a fire?

[bofa]

I'm sure most heard about this a few weeks ago but they are looking at the air springs as the culprit now...

Mechanical failure likely caused fatal California limo fire: media

 

[Stick Figure]

Story on the news that I heard was that they had an extra person in the car which caused the bag to rupture and the car to bottom out. The gas tank is in the rear of these and it was cracked/ground open and that's what actually caught fire. I don't know how big these girls were, but I would think there should be more safety margin built in to the design of the suspension that to think that an extra 100-150lbs would cause a bag in good condition to blow.

 

[bofa]

Wow, that's a crazy sequence of events... sounds straight out of a Final Destination movie. Agree about the airbags. I suppose they could have been old/worn.

 

[Stick Figure]

I've not worked on any limos, but I have worked on a lot of "modified" vehicles. Too often good enough is sent out on the road with out any real testing or safety margin built in like what an OE manufacturer would have to go through. I assume this is one of those cases.

I'm really surprised the driver didn't notice that a bag had blown and he was dragging the back of the car like that. That should be immediately noticeable to anyone paying attention to the car they are driving.

 

[dorton]

Thats a tragedy.

I've never worked on a limo, but have on some handicap conversion vans. Some of the modifications these people do are outright scary. I'm surprised we don't see more incidents like this one.