As for the airbags, just disconnect your battery. Disconnect the negative cable first then the postitive and wait like 2 minutes. I think I read that in a haynes manual actually but that's how 'disable' them. I've had some bad experiences with airbags too. They never deploy when they should and always deploy when it's unnecessary, so it seems.
So did the bar break inside the cab? Down by your feet? Or did it break on the outside of the car (through firewall side)? I've never heard of such a thing.