I stacked my first Focus and got full airbag deployment, the airbag hit me in the face, mangled and threw my glasses off, I got burns from the discharge and I was completely deaf for a good minute afterwards with dulled hearing coming back slowly.
I didn't even hear them deploy it was just out and ears ringing.
Last year was involved in another accident where the guy in front was in a new Audi SUV but he was drunk and not wearing a seatbelt, he went into the back of a RAV4 at about 70kmh.
I went over to him and he had blood all over his shirt and bleeding from his nose and face, I think he head-butted the wheel pretty hard.
With the hands thing I think it's much of a muchness, my hands where on the wheel all the way through airbag deployment.
My tips for stacking cars is don't let your passenger rest their feet on the dash or they'll cop their knee in their face at 300km/h and put your GPS lower centre of windscreen otherwise it too will hit you in the face if the curtain airbags come out
Not exactly pleasant experience airbag deployment.