Airbags

Although airbags have been instrumental in saving the lives of those involved in moderate to high speed crashes, they have been known to cause injuries and even fatalities in low speed crashes. As of 2001, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has a total of 195 confirmed fatalities caused by airbag deployment. Of that total, 119 were children, 68 were drivers, and 8 were adult passengers.

Faced with product liability lawsuits, the industry responded by issuing warnings to parents to ensure that their children were always put in the back seat. As the NHTSA pushed the use of advanced airbag technology, airbags were depowered in 1998. This new generation of airbags has reduced the number of fatalities, but inflation-induced injuries continue.

The primary causes are airbag thresholds, late deployment, aggressive airbags, and non-deployment. An airbag’s threshold is what determines its deployment, and an unnecessary deployment can cause serious harm. For the same reason, late deployments are dangerous, and can actually be proven by a small “black box” in the system much like an airplane’s flight recorder. Finally, aggressive airbags are those that are contained within “first generation” vehicles manufactured prior to the NHTSA-mandated depowerment in 1998.

If you believe you may have an airbag injury case, contact us today for more information.