Automobile Safety
Automobile safety features such as the seat belt and airbags have enhanced the overall security of drivers and passengers as they travel on the roadways. However, there has been great concern over the dangers defective automobile airbags pose to passengers and drivers alike.
Injuries Caused by Airbags
Defective automobile airbags are responsible for unnecessary injury, and possibly even death, in the event of a poorly deployed airbag. There have been many documented cases involving passengers sustaining serious injury in response to an airbag that deploys out of the blue. Without any prior warning, impact, or trigger some airbags have deployed in the total absence of an accident. The injuries that individuals may sustain from defective airbags are quite monumental. From facial lacerations, broken bones in the nose and face, to neck injury, a faulty-deploying airbag can create injury where no injury should have been received.
Deployment Factors
Another danger of a defective automobile airbag is the possibility of it deploying at a harmful speed or angle. A well-designed airbag should deploy during an impact at a precise slant and direction in order to maximize its effectiveness and safety. However, when an airbag is deployed at an unsafe angle or distance, serious physical harm and injury may come to the passenger.
Failure to Deploy
Airbags that fail to deploy at the time of impact or not at all pose the greatest risk to occupants of a vehicle involved in an accident. Failure to deploy may result in the occupants sustaining serious injury due to collision with the interior hardware of the automobile such as the dashboard, steering wheel, windshield, side doors, and windows. Delayed deployment may also cause additional unnecessary injuries as well.
Stronger Deployment
An overly powerful deployment of an airbag may also result in substantial injury to automobile occupants. The average force of an airbag at deployment has the potential of causing minor injury in a large person. Imagine the dangers of an excessive-forced deployment of an airbag with a smaller occupant such as a child. The potential for serious injury is devastatingly high.
Seeking Just Compensation
When serious injury occurs as a result of a defective automobile airbag, the injured party is due compensation from the manufacturer of the faulty airbag. To determine if the airbag was truly defective, an accident investigative team can use the evidence gathered from the vehicle and accident to determine if litigation or monetary compensation is due. Hiring a qualified attorney that specializes in either personal injury or defective airbag litigation is the first step to take in order to receive legal recourse from injuries sustained from a defective airbag.
