Modern airbag technology has received credit for preventing millions of severe injuries and saving countless lives. While airbags are considered one of the most important safety features on vehicles today, if there are defects in the manufacturing process or in the design, it may result in them failing or not deploying properly when they are needed most.
If an airbag fails to deploy when a crash occurs, the passengers and driver don’t have anything to protect them from a severe impact against a window, the steering wheel or some other part of the vehicle. As a result, they may face the very real risk of severe or fatal injuries.
If you or someone you love has suffered an injury after a car accident when an airbag didn’t deploy when it should have, you may have the right to seek compensation for damages if the airbag failure was caused by a defect. It is best to hire a personal injury attorney to help you file a lawsuit and to review the facts of your situation.
Additionally, getting to know the reasons why an airbag may not deploy in a crash can be beneficial.
The Type of Collision
The type of accident that occurred can play a major part in whether the airbags deploy. Depending on where your vehicle is hit, the airbag sensors may not be triggered. This can happen if frontal airbags don’t fire in certain rollover collisions, or during a rear or side impact crash. According to information from the NHTSA, the actual location where the crash occurs is a better indicator of whether or not an airbag was supposed to deploy than the vehicle’s speed or the damage sustained.
Defective Airbag Sensors
If the impact of a crash should have triggered the deployment of an airbag but didn’t, it is possible that the sensors failed to detect the actual impact, which resulted in the airbag not deploying. This may be the result of manufacturers that did not properly design, install or test the sensors, in addition to failures in the software or the calibration of the firing threshold. In some situations, there may not have been enough sensors to detect the crash, which can result from cost-conscientious manufacturers who put profits above safety.
Defective Electrical Components
If an airbag sensor functions properly, they should trigger deployment when a crash occurs. An airbag failure may result from defective electrical components or a faulty wiring design. This often occurs when a collision occurs where one or several airbags deploy, but others don’t.
Wiring is Severed
Some researchers have discovered that airbag failures may occur when a manufacturer chooses to route the wires through other areas, making them more at risk of being severed when a crash occurs.
Defects in the Airbag Modules
A defect in the airbag module may also prevent an airbag from deploying when it should. There are situations when the airbag module doesn’t respond, which can be because of manufacturing defects or inherent design issues, in addition to improper quality checks or control.
If you need more information about car accidents and air bag defects, contact a personal injury attorney. Additional information can be found by contacting the attorneys at Fetterman & Associates, PA by calling 561-845-2510.