Ground or secondary impact is a known source of injuries to vulnerable road users. Efforts to meet/exceed existing pedestrian protection standards have been shown to reduce injuries due to primary impact, but the secondary impact problem remains significant and unaddressed. Using computational and experimental methods, we investigated the efficacy of adhesive coated pedestrian airbags in reducing secondary impact severity. The impact scenario of a 50th %ile male with a sedan front surface and adhesively‐ coated airbag was modelled. The human body was comprised of rigid bodies with freely rotating joints. Adhesive properties were calibrated based on ball drop tests. Results indicate an adhesively‐coated airbag may prevent flight, or reduce rebound velocity, resulting in reduced secondary injuries. Manufacturing challenges, including tack time, packaging, deployment, laminating onto fabric and release layers, were addressed by experiments. These experiments have shown that overcoming many of the challenges, including deployment, is possible. Modelling and prototyping demonstrated that adhesively coated airbags could be helpful in reducing exit velocity from primary impact, thus reducing secondary injuries.