| Defective airbags sometimes deploy at the wrong time and can even
fail to deploy altogether. Serious injuries and even death can
occur from airbags failing to open. Defective airbags are in cars
everywhere, and drivers often don’t discover this until it
is too late.
When Should Airbags Deploy:
Airbags are designed to deploy when a vehicle in forward motion
decelerates quickly. Most airbag systems are created to sense vehicle
deceleration corresponding to a frontal collision at speeds in
excess of 20 to 25 mph.
Failure to Deploy
When airbags fail to deploy under these conditions, passengers
don’t have the benefit of protection they expect from the
airbag and can incur injuries that should have been prevented.
Airbags and Personal Injury
With the rapid adoption of airbags, there has been a corresponding
reduction in the severity of some crash-related injuries, and many
lives have been saved by airbags which function properly. Unfortunately,
there has been an alarming increase in the number of injuries and
fatalities reported as the result of airbags failing to deploy.
Air Bags Causing Injury
When properly designed, air bags can be
useful safety devices. Unfortunately, many air bag systems were
poorly designed, resulting in numerous known air bag defects
which in turn have resulted in thousands of serious air bag injuries.
Defectively designed air bags are known to cause brain hemorrhages,
burst hearts, severed brain stems, spinal injury, broken necks,
blindings, TMJ syndrome, facial bone fractures, upper extremity
injuries and disfigurement. These injuries have killed and paralyzed
unsuspecting adults and children in collisions in which no one
would have been injured in if the air bag didn't deploy.
Air Bag Defects
Automobile manufacturers have produced air bag systems which are
plagued by a wide range of dangerous defects. These defects have
been identified by lawyers engaged in representing injured consumers
and their survivors through diligent research and litigation. These
defects include;
Aggressively overpowered air bags: Many auto manufacturers rushed
to install air bags to obtain a marketing advantage over their
competitors. For this reason a decade of air bags were put on the
road with inadequate testing. The majority of the resulting air
bag systems utilized dangerously over powerful air bag inflators,
which cause serious injury and death when they strike occupants
while deploying. Some airbags still meet Federal standards after
being depowered by 70%.
Air Bags Without Tethers: Tethers are straps sewn inside the air
bag which physically prevent the air bag from extending all the
way to the occupant's face and eyes. These cost $1 or $2 a piece.
Untethered air bags are quite capable of causing serious injury,
since they are able to extend further toward the occupant. Eye
injuries, including blinding injuries are the often the result
of air bags slapping the face due to lack of tethers.
Inadequate Sensor Numbers and Locations: Attempts to save money
by using fewer sensors have led to defects which cause the remaining
sensors to be overly sensitive or to be unable to timely detect
a collision or to fail to detect a collision. Failure to test the
numbers, calibration and location of sensors in foreseeable crash
scenarios also results in dangerously defective sensors systems.
Inferior Algorithms: Newer air bag systems use electronic sensors
which rely on their software to analyze deceleration data to determine
if and when to deploy the air bag. These software sub-routines
are referred to as algorithms. Inadequate algorithms can cause
air bags to fire too late, fail to fire or deploy or to even fire
for no reason at all.
Venting and Folding Defect: Injuries can be caused by mistakes
in the number, size and location of gas vents and in the pattern
used to fold the air bag. These can cause injuries from serious
burns to brain damage.
Failure to Incorporate Technology: Many air bag systems are deficient
because they fail to incorporate available technology. Examples
are systems which fail to use systems which can identify the severity
of the crash and then deploy the air bag with different power levels
depending upon the energy produced in the crash. Other examples
are the failure to incorporate pretension devices. The failure
to use hear curtain side air bags is a serious safety flaw.
Failure to Warn of Known Dangers: Many car manufacturers foresaw
that when braking proceeds a collision that passengers would raise
their hands to brace themselves. Many thousands of arm injuries
are suffered each year because people were not warned about the
danger of trying to brace themselves during pre-crash braking.
Use of Cheap Sensors: Sensors designed for other uses have been
used by some manufacturers to reduce cost.
Contact A Personal Injury Lawyer Today
If you or a loved
one has suffered injury from a defective airbag, Contact one
of our personal injury lawyers to discuss your case today. You
can submit
your personal injury case, or just ask a
question. It's free, and you pay absolutely nothing until we win
your case. |
