airbag problem 1995 Ranger

I have a 95 Ranger 2.3 litre .I was in a accident and I hit the left front fender fairly hard .The airbag did not deploy but the light came on.
When I repaired the damage the left side airbag sensor took some damage so I replaced it. I used to work on the heavy truck end of ford
so I took it over to my buddy and their NGS tester would not communicate,he said that that year sometimes it would not and on the airbag module I could ground out the orange wire with the black tracer to
clear the code. It flashes out a code 42. If anybody could help me out
I would appreciate it.

All I can find is that all codes under 45 are hard faults, meaning the condition is still present.