When you get into a car accident, you trust that your car’s safety features will protect you from harm. After all these features are designed to protect drivers and passengers from the extreme forces of the crash. While they cannot prevent all injuries, they do reduce the severity of the injuries suffered. But what happens when your airbags don’t deploy during a car accident?
In some situations, this could be the result of a manufacturing defect. When a manufacturer’s negligence or defective design results in your injury, you may be able to file a claim or lawsuit seeking damages. However, these types of cases are complex and difficult to navigate on your own. As such, it is important to speak to an experienced Arkansas defective airbag injury lawyer immediately to explore your legal options. A car accident attorney could help you seek compensation.
Airbags have only been around since the 1970s when Ford introduced them in an experimental fleet of cars. It wasn’t until 1998 that airbags became a requirement in all new vehicles. Airbags are now in all of our cars, but do you know how they work?
There are three main parts to an airbag: the bag, the sensor, and the inflation system.
When nitrogen is produced by the inflation system and the bag inflates, it bursts out of the steering wheel or dashboard. The reaction happens faster than you can blink your eye, keeping you from colliding with the steering wheel, dashboard, and windshield. About a second after the airbags inflate, they are already deflating because of holes in the airbag, so it can get out of your way
Unfortunately, airbags don’t always work as they’re supposed to. For example, Takata airbags have been under scrutiny and millions have been recalled for defects that have killed several people instead of saving them. But why would your airbags fail to deploy?
Airbags are supposed to deploy in only moderate or severe crashes. They are not designed to deploy in all accidents for valid safety reasons. Whether or not they deploy depends on many factors.
Those factors include:
Because there are so many factors that affect whether or not your airbag should deploy, it is important to speak to an experienced Arkansas attorney. Your attorney would need to examine the details of your crash and your car’s system to determine why your airbags failed to deploy. If your airbags should have deployed but failed to, your attorney will need to investigate more closely to determine the true cause of failure.
Some of the most common reasons for failure include:
When an airbag fails to deploy or deploys incorrectly, it can cause serious and devastating injuries. There are numerous airbag malfunctions that can result in injury and harm to drivers and passengers. Those include:
Airbag malfunction is serious and can result in fatal injuries. When an airbag fails to deploy or deploys at the wrong time or in the wrong way, it can cause even worse injuries to passengers and drivers during an accident. In some extreme cases, airbags can even explode, sending shrapnel around the vehicle and causing fatal injuries.
Common injuries caused by airbags include:
By far, the most common injuries suffered when an airbag malfunctions or fails to deploy are head and facial injuries. That is because the airbag is meant to help protect the head and face from suffering an injury during a crash. Without the airbag there to offer cushion and support, the head and face can slam violently into the steering wheel or the side window. This can result in significant facial injuries, as well as head trauma that could be life-threatening.
If you believe that your airbag did not deploy properly during an accident, you may have cause to file a claim against the manufacturer of the airbag. This is just one of the many steps you may need to do after a car accident. Bringing a case against a manufacturer for a product defect falls under product liability law. This is a complex area of law and requires the services of an experienced attorney.
A manufacturer is held under strict liability. This means that if a product is defective, they are held liable for any damages due to that defect. Even if they are unaware of the defect or could not have prevented the defect, they are still responsible.
When bringing a case against a manufacturer for defective airbags, you and your attorney will need to clearly establish four elements.
Those elements are:
It is important to know that under strict liability, you and your attorney do not need to prove negligence.
In some cases, the airbag failed to deploy because it was damaged or tampered with during a repair. For example, a mechanic may have damaged a replacement airbag when installing it. When this occurs, your attorney may need to prove negligence, since the product was not defective.
To do this, your attorney must show that the defendant owed you a duty of care and failed in that duty. That breach of duty must have also directly caused your injury and damages.
There may be times when you may have a claim against someone under the theory of breach of warranty. This is not common, but it does happen. Under a breach of warranty claim, the manufacturer must either breach an express warranty or an implied warranty. These cases are complicated and require specific knowledge of warranty claims and laws pertaining to these breaches.
As you can see, there can be multiple ways to assert a claim after a serious airbag injury. Your Arkansas attorney will need to review your defective airbag case closely to determine the best overall course of legal action to take.
To prove these elements, you must gather evidence for your case. This evidence is critical to winning your product liability claim and holding a negligent manufacturer accountable. After a car accident, valuable evidence is often tampered with, repaired, or even destroyed. For this reason, it is important to act quickly and begin gathering evidence immediately after your accident.
Do you know what to do after a car accident? You can help your case by doing the following:
Your car accident attorney in Arkansas will take this defective airbag investigation and collection of evidence even further. They may:
Product liability cases are difficult and require a legal professional with specific knowledge and experience in this area of law. While your attorney explores a lawsuit against the manufacturer, you may also find you can collect damages from the “at fault” driver as well. Your attorney will need to examine all angles of your accident to build the best case for maximum compensation.
Speaking to an experienced Arkansas defective airbag injury attorney at Rainwater, Holt & Sexton is the first step towards putting your life back together again. We can help you hold irresponsible manufacturers accountable for the harm they’ve caused.
Being involved in an auto accident is terrifying and can cause significant financial burdens to you and your family. Arkansas law allows accident victims to collect specific types of compensation after an accident and contacting an experienced attorney can help.
With offices throughout Arkansas — Little Rock, Springdale, Conway, Hot Springs, Bryant, Jacksonville, and Jonesboro — our Arkansas defective airbag injury lawyers are easily accessible when you need help.
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