What Types of Injuries Can You Sustain When an Airbag Fails?

Our vehicles have safety features for a reason—to keep us safe in the event of a collision. A couple of these safety features that are standard in vehicles now are seat belts and airbags. Even if you don’t wear a seat belt, airbags most likely surround you in your car. They’re everywhere—the steering wheel, passenger dashboard, and above the windows in the front and rear seats. When those airbags malfunction in a car accident, though, you could sustain life-threatening injuries.

If your airbags didn’t deploy in a car wreck that should have triggered them, then you could have a product liability claim on your hands. You deserve compensation for the injuries that you suffered from someone else’s negligence. Our Jacksonville product liability lawyer from Pittman Roberts & Welsh, PLLC will investigate what happened to you to ensure that you see justice and receive full and fair compensation for your damages.

Injuries from Car Accidents Where Airbags Fail

Collisions between vehicles are known to cause injuries. When two or more cars collide, the force can cause damage to vehicles, and if the blow is strong enough, the airbags are supposed to deploy to lessen the severity of the injuries that drivers and passengers can get. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), airbags saved over 50,000 lives between the years 1987 and 2017.

Although airbags can save lives, when they fail to deploy, they aren’t helping anyone. To no surprise, when airbags fail, drivers and passengers can suffer even more injuries, or even be killed in the crash. Here are some of the injuries that you can sustain when an airbag fails in a car accident:

• Bruises and broken bones. Airbags are intended to soften the blow when your body is tossed around in an accident. When they don’t deploy, the force can cause you to suffer from more bruises and broken bones because rather than hitting a softer object, you can hit hard objects inside the vehicle.
• Head injuries. Most airbags are placed to prevent your head from hitting hard objects within your car. Some of those hard objects you can hit are steering wheels, the dashboard, and windows.
• Neck injuries. Airbags can keep your head from whipping around during a car accident because they cushion your body and hold it in place. When they don’t deploy, you could suffer from neck injuries, like whiplash.
• Internal injuries. Without an airbag, you could suffer from internal injuries when hard objects or a forceful blow hits you in your abdomen.

After a car accident when your airbags didn’t deploy, you should seek medical treatment immediately. Even if you don’t feel like you’re hurt, the shock could be masking your pain, and you could actually be severely injured. Make sure you get a medical evaluation immediately so that you can be treated for your injuries, and so that you have documentation of your injuries later if you choose to file a claim.

Who Is to Blame for Airbag Failure?

Airbag manufacturers are often to blame for airbag failure. Currently, Takata airbags are under recall because the airbags don’t deploy, but instead explode in the event of a car crash, which causes even more damage to passengers, and even causes death in some cases. According to the NHSTA, tens of millions of vehicles in the U.S. were affected, so yours could be one of them. You can find a list of vehicles affected by this recall here to know if your car needs to have its airbags replaced.

If your airbags didn’t deploy, but weren’t under recall, then there are other reasons why your airbags didn’t deploy. Depending on the speed and force of the crash, it’s possible that your airbag sensors weren’t triggered. It’s possible that your airbag sensors were defective and should have been triggered but didn’t deploy. It’s also possible that you have problems with the electrical components, wiring, and the airbag module in your car. If any of these are the problem, then you could have a claim against your car manufacturer.

If your airbags were under recall but you weren’t aware, and they didn’t deploy in your car accident that caused you injury, then you could file a product liability claim. The manufacturer would be at fault for your injuries because the airbags that they produced and installed were defective. If your airbags had deployed, you might not have suffered as many injuries. Our Jackson personal injury attorneys at Pittman Roberts & Welsh, PLLC will support you in your claim and ensure that the negligent company is held responsible for their actions.

Pittman Roberts & Welsh, PLLC Is On Your Side

When a company produces a product that isn’t up to par and can cause harm to the consumer, they should be held responsible for that harm. If you’ve suffered from injuries at the hand of a manufacturing company who produced a defective product, then you deserve justice. Our product liability lawyer from Pittman Roberts & Welsh, PLLC will guide you through the claims process and fight for you against a big company.

We know that going up against a large company can be intimidating. That’s why we’re here to help. With our support, you can feel confident in your claim. Contact us today so that we can get started on your case and decide your best course of action moving forward.