Aside from the seatbelt, airbags are arguably one of the most important and life-saving safety features built into modern vehicles. In the event of a car accident, airbags are designed to deploy in a split second and provide emergency cushioning against severe impacts, such as protecting a driver’s head from striking the steering wheel, windows, and more. Unfortunately, defects in manufacturing or design of airbags can cause them to deploy at inappropriate times or fail to deploy at all when needed, causing vehicle occupants to suffer devastating injuries. But what exactly causes an airbag to fail?
Your airbag may fail to deploy for any of the following reasons:
- The crash did not trigger sensors: The first reason why an airbag may not deploy is due to the nature of the collision itself. For example, many frontal airbags will only deploy from a front-facing impact, with most side impacts, rear impacts, and rollovers not triggering the appropriate sensors.
- The sensors were defective: If the impact does occur in the appropriate location, however, an airbag may fail to deploy if the vehicle’s sensors fail to detect the crash properly. Most faulty airbag lawsuits fall within this category and are related to inadequate testing of sensors, software flaws, a lack of sensors, or an inappropriately calibrated airbag deployment threshold.
- Electrical defects: In other cases, a vehicle’s impact detection sensors may work fine, but the electrical components responsible for communicating an impact signal to the airbag modules may be faulty. This is usually shown in cases where a passenger airbag deploys but a driver airbag does not, or vice versa. In many cases, this is a sign of a defective clockspring in the vehicle’s steering column or a manufacturer’s decision to route wires through vulnerable areas which can become cut in the event of a crash.
- Defective airbag modules: Finally, a crash could trigger the necessary sensors and communicate the signal directly to the airbag module itself, only for the module to malfunction upon deployment. This is almost always the result of defectively designed airbag modules themselves or poor quality control, as is the case with the now world-famous massive Takata airbag scandal.
INJURED BY A FAULTY AIRBAG? CONTACT KYLE LAW FIRM
If you or a loved one has suffered an injury in a traffic collision due to a defective airbag or other vehicle defect, you may have grounds to file a product liability claim against the vehicle manufacturer in pursuit of full and fair compensation for your suffering. At Kyle Law Firm, our New Braunfels personal injury lawyers understand the strategies necessary to guard your rights and maximize your potential settlement.
We have recovered millions – call (830) 476-780 today to take the first step towards filing a claim.
