the present invention comprises an external airbag system for mounting on a vehicle that deploys into the region above the bumper to prevent or mitigate injuries that would have otherwise been caused by a person striking the grill or hood area of the vehicle . the airbag is stored in a housing mounted within the front bumper of the vehicle . the airbag is deployed upwardly through an opening in the upper surface of the bumper into the region between the upper surface of the bumper and the front surface fo the grill and hood . the airbag is generally t - shaped and includes a plurality of internal tethers extending internally between the opposing inner surfaces at regular intervals to cause the airbag to be tufted . the internal tethers reduce the volume of the airbag for a given frontal area thereby decreasing the inflation time required , without resort to fabricating the airbag from multiple idependent chambers . selected of the internal tethers may be designed to break as the airbag reaches close to its full inflation pressure to allow a portion of the airbag to bulge outwardly after the air bag is fully deployed . the remaining tethers are designed to break as the pressure increases when the airbag is collapsed in a collision .