Air Bag Deployment Failure
Severe injuries to face and eyes.
Partial or total blindness.
Broken forearms, wrists and hands.
Neck and spinal cord injury.
Decapitation.
Injuries from airbags can be gruesome, if not deadly.
Deploying at speeds up to 200 mph and exerting well over 1000 pounds of force, the entire process of air bag inflation and deflation occurs in less than one second. The injuries they can cause, however, may last a lifetime.
Airbags were designed to deploy in the case of severe, front-impact collisions, and have saved thousands of lives over the past 50 years. But as technology advances, airbag systems and sensors (and the algorithms that control them) have become increasingly more complicated, which has resulted in numerous malfunctions and manufacturer defects.
Serious injuries from airbags are likely to occur from late deployment or inadvertent deployment at low speeds - meaning passengers who may otherwise have been unharmed during an accident find themselves victim to injury. Conversely, many injuries may occur from non-deployment. Thus, legal cases surrounding airbag injuries are difficult to prosecute because it often takes multiple experts to determine whether or not an airbag should have deployed (involving many complicated scientific and engineering principles).
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that airbag deployment has killed 227 people in low-severity crashes since 1990. This number includes 76 drivers, 10 adult passengers, 119 children between the ages of 1 and 11, and 22 infants. Of the 76 adult drivers killed, 28 were women under 5 feet 2 inches tall, and 4 of the 10 adult passengers killed were females smaller than that height.
Though far more common than deaths, injuries are not recognized as an issue or tracked by NHTSA.
Airbag systems were originally designed for the 5 ft 8 inch 180 lb. male, and only tested to be sure they met their needs. Thus, people who are "shorter in stature" (typically women and elderly persons) face the greatest risk of injury, since they have to sit closer to the steering wheel than the recommended 10 or 12 inches.
If you or a loved one have been seriously injured due to defective airbag, please contact our office immediately for a free consultation.
