According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), frontal airbags alone have saved more than 50,000 lives in 30 years. Airbags are particularly effective in high-speed accidents, helping to prevent more serious injuries.
While most automobile accidents are caused by driver negligence, defective airbags can play a role in many of them. Despite their life-saving abilities, airbags can sometimes cause injuries when they don’t deploy – or even when they work as intended. An experienced product liability lawyer from the Belal Hamideh law office can review your case and explain your legal options during a free consultation.
How Airbags Work
When a moderate to severe crash occurs, the air bag system’s electronic control module sends a signal to an inflator in the airbag module. An igniter in the inflator initiates a chemical reaction that produces a harmless gas. This inflates the airbag in less than 1/20th of a second.
Airbags can only deploy once. They should be replaced after they have deployed.
Different Types of Airbags
Today, there are various types of airbags, including the following:
- Front airbags, which are the most common type of airbags in motor vehicles and have been around since the 1990s, protect the vehicle occupant’s upper body
- Side airbags, which are being offered as standard or an option in many newer passenger vehicles, inflate even faster than frontal airbags to protect occupants in T-bone accidents and rollover crashes
- Rear airbags, which are curtain or seat-mounted bags designed to help protect occupants in the back seat
- Curtain airbags, which deploy from the roof lining to protect vehicle occupants’ heads and necks in case of a side impact or rollover
- Knee airbags, which are located under the dashboard or the glove compartment, and are designed to protect the legs and pelvis in case of a frontal crash
These airbags are designed to save lives and minimize injuries, but they don’t always function properly.
Types of Airbag Defects
In product liability law, there are generally three types of potential product defects:
- Manufacturing defect: Manufacturing defects occur when a problem occurs during the manufacturing process, resulting in one or a batch of products not being safe to use as intended. For example, the wrong material might be used during the production phase, resulting in airbag failure for affected airbags.
- Design defect: Design defects occur when the original design creates an inherently dangerous product. Even though nothing goes wrong during the production process, the product still isn’t safe. For example, the material may contain small objects that become shrapnel when they are exposed to a chemical reaction with argon gas.
- Warning defect: Warning defects occur when consumers are unaware of potential hazards associated with using the product, such as placing a child’s car seat in front of an active airbag.
An experienced attorney can determine if any of these defects provide legal grounds for an airbag lawsuit.
How Defective Airbags Cause Injuries
Airbags can cause injuries in various ways. First, an airbag failure during a car crash could prevent the airbags from deploying. Injury victims can crash into the interior of the vehicle as though there were no airbags installed in the vehicle.
Next, airbag deployment could be delayed. In this scenario, vehicle occupants don’t benefit from the immediate deployment of the airbag and may impact the interior of the car. Then, the airbag may deploy late, which can cause additional injuries because the body is not in the position it should have been in when the airbag deployed.
Alternatively, the airbag could deploy too early or unnecessarily, causing the car occupant to get into a crash or suffer from injuries that could have been prevented. Or, airbags could under-inflate, failing to protect the occupants.
One major reason for airbag injuries is when the airbag deploys with too much force. They can cause blunt force trauma, leading to brain trauma, facial injuries, and other serious wounds.
Common Types of Defective Airbags
Various types of defects can cause accident-related injuries, such as:
- Failure to deploy
- Deploying unnecessarily
- Deploying at the wrong time
- Untethered airbags that break loose from their mounts
- Oversized or misaligned airbags that deploy too far into the vehicle occupant’s space
- Deploying with too much force
- Software glitches
- Problems with crash sensors
- Failure of electrical parts in the airbag
- Inflator issues
- Exploding shrapnel
- Failure to detect
- Poor materials in the airbags
- Design flaws
- Faulty airbag control modules
- Sensor malfunctions or other problems with the sensor system
- Electrical failures, wiring issues, or electrical system problems that fail to send the airbag deployment signal
Our experienced attorneys represent accident victims in various types of injury claims due to defective airbags.
Types of Airbag Injuries
Airbag injury victims may suffer various types of severe injuries due to defective airbags, such as:
- Spinal cord injuries due to an airbag deployment malfunction
- Traumatic brain injuries when the airbag fails to deploy, and the vehicle occupant hits their head on a hard surface
- Facial injuries that occur due to the airbag deploying with great force on the vehicle occupants’ faces
- Retinal detachment and eye injuries occur when the airbag deploys with great force
- Chest injuries that occur due to the force of the airbag trying to prevent the vehicle occupant from hitting the interior of the car
- Chemical burns and chemical exposure injuries that occur when argon gas undergoes a chemical reaction
- Respiratory problems, which can occur when breathing in the chemicals released by the airbags after deployment
- Internal injuries that occur due to the force of the airbag deploying
Whether the airbag malfunctions or the force of deployment causes injury, you may have suffered serious injuries and may be able to pursue compensation from the party responsible for them.
Evidence to Prove Airbag Defects
Product liability cases involving defective products can be difficult to prove. You will need strong evidence to show the defect was responsible for your accident-related injuries. Your lawyer can help gather compelling evidence, such as:
- Event data recorders
- Reports from accident reconstruction experts
- Vehicle inspection reports
- Manufacturer recall notices for airbag or vehicle recalls
- Video evidence
- Witness statements
One of the most infamous cases involving defective airbags involved the Takata Corporation. These airbags had defective inflators containing ammonium nitrate that caused the inflators to rupture and send metal fragments into the vehicle’s cabin. Tens of millions of vehicles in the United States had these airbags installed in them. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued an airbag recall due to safety concerns after several injuries and deaths were linked to the defective products.
Contact Our Car Accident Lawyers for a Free Case Review
If you were injured in a vehicle crash and defective airbags played a part, an experienced car accident lawyer from Belal Hamideh can assess your case. We are knowledgeable about product liability law and can fight for the fair compensation you deserve by filing a defective product claim if motor vehicle manufacturers violated safety regulations under California law or federal law. Contact us today to arrange your free consultation.