Airbag Did Not Deploy After Car Accident

Airbags are a standard safety feature on cars, and for good reason. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), frontal airbags have saved more than 50,000 lives over a 30-year period. While airbags can save lives, if an airbag fails to deploy, it can make car accident injuries even more serious.

If you are involved in an auto accident where your airbag did not deploy, you may have two separate personal injury claims. You can pursue legal action against the at-fault driver as well as the manufacturer or installer of your vehicle’s air bag. Our Long Island personal injury attorneys will fight to get you the compensation that you deserve for your property damage, medical bills, lost wages, emotional distress, and other losses.

At The Odierno Law Firm Accident and Injury Lawyers, we are dedicated to helping clients in Suffolk and Nassau Counties get top dollar for their injuries. We offer free initial consultations and never charge a fee unless we recover money for you. Reach out to our law offices today to talk to a Long Island car accident lawyer about your case.

Options If Your Airbag Didn’t Deploy in an Accident

While airbags have a high rate of success in preventing fatalities and more catastrophic injuries in car accidents, they are not foolproof. In some cases, an airbag simply does not deploy. This may be due to:

• The speed of the impact
• The direction of the impact
• A child or smaller adult is sitting in the front seat, and the vehicle turns off the passenger airbag system
• The force of the impact is below the threshold for deployment
• The sensors malfunction
• A manufacturing or design defect
• Improper installation of the airbag
• Counterfeit or recycled airbags
• No warning labels on the airbags

While it may seem unlikely that your airbag would fail, the NHTSA has issued a recall notice for tens of millions of vehicles with Takata airbags. Per the NHTSA, exposure to high heat and humidity over time can cause these airbags to explode when deployed. These explosions have caused injuries and deaths.

If your airbag did not deploy in a car accident, you may be able to pursue two separate personal injury claims. 

• First, you can file a lawsuit against the driver who caused the crash. 
• Second, you can potentially file a separate product liability lawsuit against the manufacturer, retailer, or installer of the faulty airbag.

Product liability lawsuits are a special category of personal injury claims. Essentially, you can bring a legal claim against a company if you were injured by a dangerous or defective product that it manufactured, sold, or distributed. 

There are a few different legal theories that can be pursued in product liability cases where an airbag did not deploy. First, there may have been a design or manufacturing defect that caused the airbag to fail. To win a defective airbag lawsuit, you will need to prove the following:

1. The at-fault party (defendant) designed, manufactured, sold, or distributed the airbag or a component of the airbag system.
2. The airbag or component was defective.
3. The defect existed when the airbag left the defendant’s possession.
4. You used the airbag in a reasonably foreseeable manner.
5. The defective airbag or airbag component caused damage or injury to you.

In failure to deploy cases, the injury is actually a more serious injury than what you would have suffered had the airbag deployed properly. Our Long Island car accident lawyers will work with experts to prove that the airbag had a manufacturing or design flaw and that your injuries were more severe than they would have otherwise been.

Second, you may be able to file a claim against a car dealer or body shop for failure to properly install an airbag. These systems only work if they are installed correctly. If the dealership or a body shop didn’t install the airbag correctly, you could bring a claim against them if your airbag didn’t deploy in an accident.

Third, you could potentially sue the manufacturer or even the car’s seller if they removed warnings related to the airbag from the vehicles. Under federal law, vehicles are required to carry warnings about safe airbag use. If someone removes those warnings and then sells the vehicle to you without them, they could be held responsible if you are injured because you did not know about safe airbag usage.

Fourth, you could bring a claim against a repair shop if they used a recycled or counterfeit airbag in your vehicle. Airbags can only be used once. After an airbag has deployed, it should not be reinstalled in another vehicle. 

Unfortunately, some repair shops refold airbags and install them into vehicles. In other cases, repair shops may install cheaper counterfeit bags or even airbags that hadn’t deployed but were taken from wrecked cars in a junkyard. While this might save the repair shop money, it could also cause the airbag to not deploy, causing more serious injuries in a car accident.

These cases can be complicated, especially because they involve multiple legal theories. If you have been hurt in a car accident where the airbag did not deploy, our law firm can help. Reach out to schedule a free consultation with a Long Island personal injury lawyer.

Compensation and Settlements in Failure to Deploy Cases

If you are in a motor vehicle accident, your injuries will almost certainly be worse if your airbag does not deploy. Depending on the facts of your case, you may be able to file a lawsuit against the driver who caused your crash. You might also be able to sue the airbag manufacturer or another party if your injuries were more severe because of this failure to deploy.

In a lawsuit, you can recover money for all of your losses. This may include:

• Economic damages for your direct financial losses, including property damage, lost wages, reduced earning potential, medical expenses, and future medical treatment.
• Non-economic damages pay for your intangible losses, such as pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional trauma, scarring, and disfigurement.
• Punitive damages may be awarded in more unusual cases where the at-fault party acted intentionally or recklessly. For example, if a repair shop put a recycled airbag into your vehicle knowing that it may not deploy again, they could potentially be liable for punitive damages.

Our Long Island personal injury attorneys will fight to get you full compensation for your injuries. Insurance companies often attempt to downplay damages in a personal injury case in the hopes that they can resolve the claim for as little money as possible. Our job is to fight back against the insurance company’s attempt to lowball your claim, working to get you the money that you are entitled to under New York law.

Studies show that people who have an attorney in a personal injury case recover far more money than people who represent themselves. The reason why is straightforward. Insurance companies know that when you have a lawyer, there is a real possibility that you will take your case to trial. They are more likely to offer a fair settlement when they know that there is a risk of having to go to court.

As experienced Long Island car accident attorneys, we know that the financial, physical, and emotional aspects of an accident can be overwhelming. Our goal is to take that burden off your shoulders, allowing you to focus on your recovery while we work to get you the money that you deserve for your injuries.

Help for Long Island Accident Victims

Airbags are meant to prevent serious injury and death in motor vehicle accidents. If they don’t deploy, you may suffer even more severe injuries. In this situation, our law offices will work with you to explore all possible avenues for compensation.

At The Odierno Law Firm Accident and Injury Lawyers, we represent clients in both Suffolk County and Nassau County in a range of personal injury matters, including car accident cases.  We handle all cases on a contingency fee basis, which means that you’ll never pay a fee unless we recover money for you. To learn more or to schedule a free initial consultation with a Long Island car accident attorney, call us at 631-973-6221 or fill out our online contact form.