Can You Sue If Airbags Do Not Deploy In A Crash?

Jed Dietrich, Esq., Is a Recognized Super Lawyer Who Is Committed to Providing Unparalleled Personal Injury Service. If You or a Loved One Has Been Injured By an Airbag in a Buffalo Product Defect Accident or Motor Vehicle Collision That Was Not Your Fault, The Dietrich Law Firm P.C. Could Help You Explore Your Best Options for Effective Legal Relief.

Few people today will dispute that airbags help save lives.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, laws making frontal airbags mandatory have saved more than 50,000 lives over the past 30 years. However, for as much good as they have done, airbags are not without risks. This is due, in no small part, to obvious shortcomings in contemporary airbag design.

In a collision, survivors sometimes find they have been hurt just as much by their own airbags as the other vehicle. These injuries, while often preferable to the alternative, are often a source of intense physical pain and extensive financial hardship.

You should not have to pay the price for another driver’s mistake.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident that was not your fault, the Dietrich Law Firm P.C. could help you explore your options for compensation. This could mean filing a personal injury lawsuit against another driver, suing an airbag manufacturer whose product failed the only time you ever needed it, or both. No matter the case, our experienced team of attorneys has decades of experience. We know what it takes to build a compelling, evidence-based claim for damages, and we have the results to prove it.

Please send us a message or call Jed Dietrich, Esq., today at 716-839-3939 to speak to an airbag injury lawyer and schedule your 100% free, no-obligation consultation as soon as possible.

The United States requires all new cars to come equipped with airbags, but the federal government does not specify exactly how manufacturers should make and install them.

Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach to airbag design, most of the models used in modern vehicles are activated by a sensor located near the front of the vehicle. If the sensor detects a collision, it sends an electrical signal to a central control system, which assesses whether or not an airbag deployment is necessary. Once triggered, most airbags will inflate within a literal fraction of a second.

Even when airbag control systems work exactly as intended, other problems before, during, or after deployment could expose drivers to additional danger. Airbags can themselves become a source of danger when:

A defective sensor can cause airbags to deploy at the wrong time, sometimes even in the absence of any real collision.

Most airbags detonate by oxidizing a special chemical cartridge, which releases rapidly expanding nitrogen gas. This gas is not inherently dangerous, but the reaction produces heat and other chemical byproducts that could burn the skin and irritate your respiratory system.

Airbag deployments produce a surprising amount of force. If an airbag is installed at the wrong height or angle, the force of expansion alone could be enough to bruise skin or break bone.

Most airbag-related injuries can be attributed to either blunt-force trauma or chemical burns.

The most common sources of injury in these kinds of accidents include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. The physical force generated by a rapidly-expanding airbag;
2. The chemical and thermal processes generated in airbag expansion; and
3. The shrapnel from defective or poorly designed airbag canisters striking occupants.

These risk factors can cause or contribute to injuries such as:

1. Facial injuries, including contusions and fractures;
2. Chest injuries, including broken ribs or internal heart injuries;
3. Chemical and thermal burns to the eyes, face, hands, arms, or chest;
4. Traumatic brain injuries; and
5. Internal organ injuries.

In very rare cases, airbag-related injuries can be life-threatening, with some groups of people facing much higher risks than others. Young children and senior citizens are, for instance, more likely to sustain serious injuries from airbag deployments than older teenagers and younger adults. Pregnant women could face additional complications if struck in the abdomen, up to and including the loss of their unborn child.

Under state law, accident victims who have sustained serious injuries through no fault of their own have a legal right to file a personal injury lawsuit against the person or party who caused their collision.

Defective airbags, however, can complicate otherwise straightforward claims.

In an ordinary car accident lawsuit, apportioning liability is often fairly easy. If another driver’s negligence clearly caused your crash, the at-fault driver can and probably should be held liable for your damages.

But when a defective airbag is involved, you may need to consider naming multiple defendants.

These could include any one or more of the following:

1. The automobile manufacturer. Car manufacturers are responsible for designing safe vehicles. If an element of the car’s design, like the airbag, is defective or otherwise inherently unsafe, the manufacturer could be at least partly liable for your damages.
2. The airbag-maker. Most automobile manufacturers do not make their own airbags. Instead, they purchase them from third-party companies, some of which do nothing but design, test, and sell airbags. Many of these companies take safety very seriously, but it does not take much beyond a minor design flaw or manufacturing error to compromise even the best-made airbag’s integrity.
3. The at-fault driver who caused your crash. If another driver caused your crash, they could still be liable for a wide range of economic and non-economic damages.

If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident that was caused or exacerbated by a defective airbag system, the Dietrich Law Firm P.C. could help you assert your right to a fair recovery. Please send us a message online or call us at 716-839-3939 to speak to an attorney about your options after an airbag injury accident.

Call the Dietrich Law Firm P.C. immediately at 716-839-3939 so that our aggressive, tenacious, and hardworking personal injury lawyers can fight to obtain the best result for your personal injury claim in Buffalo, New York. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and there is never a fee until we WIN for you!