Airbags can save lives in a crash, but they don’t always go off or work as they should. Millions of cars made by 19 automakers have been called back so that their frontal airbags, which could explode and hurt or kill the people inside, can be fixed.
There may still be many cars on the road with broken airbags. If you were injured because an airbag was poorly designed, made, or installed, the company that created it might have to pay you money.
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It can be hard to get paid for a claim about a broken airbag. There could be more than one party to blame along the supply chain, and it can be hard to figure out who is at fault. With the help of an experienced product liability lawyer, you can make sure that everyone who caused you harm pays for it.
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Typical wounds Airbags are to blame.
Studies have shown that airbags can save lives and keep people from getting hurt badly. But sometimes, they don’t work right, don’t deploy properly, and hurt people. If an airbag injured you in a crash in Dallas, you should have an experienced airbag injury lawyer review what happened and discuss your legal options.
Most airbags are made to protect an average-sized adult man. This means that they sometimes offer different protections to people who aren’t the same size and shape as a fit 25-year-old man. This includes women, children, short adults, tall adults, pregnant women, and older people.
Injuries caused by airbags can be put into the following groups:
Airbag malfunction: When it shouldn’t, the airbag goes off all of a sudden. When this happens, the driver can’t see or control the car, which can lead to a serious accident. On the other hand, the airbag might not go off when it should, which could cause serious injuries.
Flaws in design: Even though the airbag worked as it was supposed to, it still hurt people. Most of these injuries are caused by flaws in the design, like not taking into account that people are different sizes. Women, children, and older people are most likely to get these kinds of injuries. Some of these injuries are abrasions, burns, upper-limb fractures, contusions, internal organ damage, wrist and hand injuries, traumatic brain injuries, internal bleeding, eye injuries, hearing loss, and others.
User error. Airbags are only meant to protect people who are also wearing their seatbelts. If the person isn’t buckled in, the airbag is much more likely to hurt or kill them than to protect them in any way. Children under 12 should never sit in the front seat of a car because airbags are not made to protect them.
Newer airbags have been changed to use less explosive power and protect more people. Still, injuries can happen.
What happens when your airbags go off, and how do they work?
Before seatbelts and shoulder restraints were made and required, it was common for people in cars to be thrown around or out of the vehicle.
Modern cars have multiple airbags that will go off in a high-speed crash. During a crash, explosives cause airbags to quickly fill with air. This keeps your body from hitting hard surfaces like the steering wheel, dashboard, or windscreen. When your body hits the airbags, they slowly deflate to keep you from getting hurt.
- When an airbag goes off the right way:
- When the car hits something, it suddenly slows down.
- Sensors in the car notice that it is slowing down very quickly.
- When the sensors send a signal to an electronic heating element, the explosives in the airbag go off.
- The explosions send out a harmless gas (nitrogen or argon) that quickly fills the airbags (at over 200 mph).
If a person’s body hits an airbag, the force of the collision forces the gas out, which deflates the bag and brings the person to a stop in a slow enough way (compared to how fast the bag inflated) they shouldn’t get hurt.
What makes an airbag not work as it should?
The most common problem with an airbag is that it doesn’t go off when it should occur during an accident. This can cause injuries that could have been avoided.
Most of the time, the airbags don’t work because the car’s maker needed to do a better job designing, testing, or installing them. Some common reasons why deployments don’t go as planned are:
- The airbag sensors were broken, put in the wrong place, or more needed to be built into the vehicle.
- The electrical parts that send signals from the airbag sensors to the explosives inside the airbag were broken.
- The electronics that directly control the airbag are broken, so it can’t respond to the signals sent to it.
- The manufacturer put essential airbag system parts in places where they could be broken or destroyed in an accident. This made them useless before they needed to be.
Because of problems with how it was made, the airbag bursts and fills up too slowly or doesn’t fill up at all. When an airbag explodes, chemicals can get right into a person’s face, hurting their eyes, skin, and lungs.
Can I sue the company that made the airbag if it hurts me?
If your airbag went off correctly, the driver who caused the accident would likely be responsible for your injuries and other losses, including those caused by the airbag itself. But if the airbag didn’t work right, the company that made the airbag or the car could be responsible for any injuries that happened because the airbag didn’t work as expected.
In that case, the person hurt could file a claim against the maker of the bad product. Your lawyer doesn’t have to prove that the manufacturer was careless for you to get the money you deserve. Instead, they have to show that the product was broken and didn’t do what it was meant to do.
Takata Airbag Injury Claims
Takata, a major parts supplier, made the airbags that were part of the largest safety recall in U.S. history. More than 40 million cars made from 2002 to 2015 were called back because their airbags were broken. After being exposed to high heat and humidity, the airbag’s propellant started to fail.
The flawed airbags would either explode when used, spraying the people in the car with harmful chemicals and metal shrapnel, or they wouldn’t deflate all the way, leaving the people in the car with too little protection in case of a car crash.
It is known that faulty Takata airbags caused 24 deaths and hurt more than 300 people. Most likely, a lot more people were hurt by these broken airbags. If you were injured in an accident before the recall and your car is on the list of vehicles needing fixing, you can get money. It would help if you immediately talk to an experienced airbag injury lawyer.
Has a broken airbag hurt you? We can assist.
If you were hurt because your airbag didn’t work right or keep you safe, you might be able to get money for your medical bills, lost wages, and other damages. Talk to an experienced product liability lawyer about the details of your case and the rights you have under the law.
