Airbags are a safety feature in nearly every modern car, designed to inflate within milliseconds of a crash. They cushion the impact for drivers and passengers by deploying rapidly in front of the body or from the side of the vehicle. While airbags play a crucial role in reducing the severity of many injuries during accidents, their extreme speed and force can also create risks of their own.
Understanding how an airbag can cause injuries, and whether you could be entitled to compensation as a result, is important for anyone in a crash where an airbag deploys. Contact our St. Louis, MO car accident attorneys if you were injured by an airbag in a crash. Schedule your free consultation today.
Common Airbag Injuries
When an airbag deploys, it is meant to provide protection to the people in the vehicle. While this is often the case, there are situations in which injuries can occur as a result as well. Some common types of airbag injuries include:
- Facial Injuries: The speed of the airbag can cause broken facial bones, deep cuts, eye injuries, or damage to teeth.
- Burns: Contact with the airbag’s hot gas and fabric often leads to friction burns. Sometimes, chemical burns happen when your skin makes contact with the chemicals inside the airbag.
- Head and Neck Injuries: Airbag force may cause concussions, whiplash, or spine injuries.
- Chest and Rib Trauma: When an airbag deploys, it often hits the driver or passenger right in the chest or ribs, which could result in broken ribs, fractured breastbones, or even injuries to the heart and lungs.
- Injuries to Limbs: If your hands are on the steering wheel as the airbag deploys, you could end up with a broken wrist or injured shoulders.
While it’s a real risk that you will suffer injuries after an airbag deploys, they are usually less severe than the potential damage you would experience without one.
Airbag Malfunctions That Lead to Injury
Although airbags are generally reliable and work as designed – to protect you – there are sometimes issues that can occur with them, leading to serious injuries. Some malfunctions that could occur include:
Failure to Deploy
Sometimes, accident victims are injured because an airbag does not activate when needed. Problems can include defective sensors, faulty wiring, or even mistakes made during repairs to an airbag that deployed in a previous crash.
Late Deployment
If an airbag deploys too late, it can end up being useless or even cause more damage than had it not deployed at all.
Unexpected or Random Deployment
Rarely, an airbag might trigger for no apparent reason, sometimes while you’re just driving down the street for example. This can cause injuries from the airbag, but will also startle the driver and could lead to a more serious car crash.
Overly Aggressive Deployment
A malfunctioning airbag system may explode with too much force. This can cause deeper burns, break bones, or generate violent head movements and serious injuries.
Defective Components
Sometimes, an airbag is defective and carries severe risks. Take Takata airbags for example. When these airbags deployed, they shot out sharp metal fragments that put everyone in the car at risk of severe injury.
If you’ve been injured as a result of an airbag accident and believe someone’s negligence may have played a part, you may be able to file a claim for compensation. Contact our team today to schedule a free consultation to figure out your next steps.