Reviewed by Adrianos Facchetti, Esq. California State Bar Number 243213. This page was reviewed for California personal injury and product liability accuracy, clarity, and value to injured individuals who suffered an injury as a result of a failure of an airbag in a car accident.
Just because the airbags didn’t work in your car accident doesn’t necessarily indicate any defects in the design or manufacture of the airbags. Rather, the key issue is whether or not the airbags should have deployed in your particular accident and, if so, whether the defect in the airbag caused the increased level of injury suffered.
This type of case often involves two issues: the negligent conduct causing the accident and the potential separate issue of whether the vehicle’s airbags did not work. If you’ve suffered a severe injury as a result of a malfunction of airbags in a Los Angeles area crash, then consider contacting a Los Angeles car accident lawyer for a free consultation.
The First Question Is Whether the Airbag Should Have Deployed
Not every car accident is supposed to trigger an airbag deployment. The decision of whether the airbag should have gone off during your particular crash is based on a number of different factors concerning both the crash and the car itself.
Such factors may include the following:
- The direction of impact
- The severity of the crash
- Deceleration rate
- Crash sensors’ readings
- Occupant presence sensor readings in cars that are equipped with such a system
- The way the airbag system was programmed for the car in question
- If there was a prior airbag deployment or replacement
- System malfunctions
- Aftermarket changes to the car
As a result, the argument that the airbag did not deploy cannot be made using visual damage alone. Instead, some technical data is required to show what information the vehicle’s systems detected in order to make the decision. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration provides guidelines for airbag deployment in general, but the exact threshold for each particular car depends on its design.
If a Defective Airbag Contributes to Worsening Injuries
While it may be clear that another motorist’s negligence was the cause of the accident, it may also be the case that a malfunctioning airbag further worsened injuries by not functioning as expected during the accident. This principle is referred to as crashworthiness or enhanced injury claims.
This means that one driver runs a red light and is responsible for causing a car accident. In other words, that driver’s negligent actions caused the accident, but if the airbag in your vehicle should have been deployed but failed to do so, thus resulting in greater head or facial injuries, this would constitute a different matter.
A defendant in a defective airbag case does not need to be at fault for the initial accident to be the defendant in an enhanced injury claim. However, not all serious accidents will necessarily result in an enhanced injury claim.
Preserve the Vehicle Before Critical Evidence Is Lost
In an airbag non-deployment case, the vehicle itself is often the most important piece of evidence, and it can lose that value quickly if it’s repaired, sold, salvaged, or scrapped.
Evidence that may exist within the vehicle includes:
- The airbag modules themselves
- Crash sensors
- Restraint system components, including seat belts and pretensioners
- Airbag warning lights or stored diagnostic codes
- Data from the airbag control module or restraint control module
- Event Data Recorder information, where the vehicle has one
- Wiring and electrical connectors related to the restraint system
- Repair history
- Records of any prior collisions
- Recall history for the vehicle
- Photographs showing the vehicle’s crush pattern and impact points
- The owner’s manual and manufacturer specifications for that model
Not every vehicle stores the same data, and what’s actually recoverable depends heavily on the make, model, and year. This isn’t something to handle yourself. Qualified experts generally need to inspect the vehicle and its electronic systems properly, since improperly accessing or downloading this data can damage or invalidate it.
What you can control is making sure the vehicle isn’t destroyed, salvaged, substantially repaired, or otherwise altered before that inspection has a chance to happen. Once a vehicle is repaired or scrapped, evidence that could show why the airbag failed is often gone permanently.
What Type of Product Defect Could Be Involved?
California law recognizes a few different theories for a product liability claim, and which one applies depends entirely on the facts and evidence in your specific case.
Design defect
This theory alleges that the airbag or restraint system’s overall design created an unreasonable safety risk, even when manufactured exactly as intended.
Manufacturing defect
This theory alleges that a specific component departed from its intended design or specifications, meaning the particular part in your vehicle differed from how it was supposed to be built.
Failure to warn
This theory involves inadequate warnings or instructions about a known or knowable risk, where California law supports that kind of claim based on the facts.
California’s Judicial Council civil jury instructions recognize strict liability theories for each of these categories, with different elements required to prove each one. It’s not accurate to say manufacturers are automatically strictly liable in every case. Which theory fits, if any, depends on what the evidence actually shows once the vehicle and its systems have been properly examined.
Who Could Be Responsible for an Airbag Non-Deployment Injury?
More than one party can potentially be involved in a case like this, and it’s worth understanding that the party responsible for the crash itself may be entirely different from the party responsible for a defective airbag.
Depending on the facts, potentially responsible parties may include:
- The vehicle manufacturer
- The airbag or restraint component manufacturer
- A restraint system supplier that produced a specific part
- A distributor or seller, where legally applicable
- A repair facility, if negligent repair or replacement work contributed to the failure
- Another driver, if their negligence caused the underlying collision
This is one of the more important distinctions in these cases. The underlying crash claim against the other driver and the airbag defect claim against a manufacturer or supplier can involve completely different evidence, different legal theories, and sometimes different insurance policies. When another driver caused the underlying collision, our Los Angeles car accident guidance explains how fault and insurance issues typically get evaluated, which may run alongside a separate defective safety system claim rather than replacing it.
Injuries and Losses That May Be Part of the Claim
Depending on the facts of your case, injuries that may be part of an airbag non-deployment claim include:
- Head injuries
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Facial injuries
- Dental injuries
- Chest injuries
- Spinal injuries
- Fractures
- Internal injuries
Non-deployment doesn’t automatically mean it caused any specific injury. Causation is a central issue in these cases, since the evidence needs to distinguish between injuries the collision itself likely would have caused regardless of the airbag, and additional or more severe injuries that a properly functioning airbag would have prevented.
Depending on how the case develops, potential damages may include medical expenses, future medical care where supported by the evidence, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, pain and suffering, property loss, and other losses recoverable under California law.
California Deadlines and Why Airbag Cases Should Be Investigated Early
In most personal injury or product liability claims filed in California, the limitation period is typically two years in accordance with California Code of Civil Procedure Section 335.1. However, that does not necessarily mean that in any given case it will be clear when the limitation period begins or whether there are any applicable exceptions.
While the actual deadline may be quite far off in some cases, the truth is that the evidence in an airbag case tends to disappear well before the deadline is reached. Once the car undergoes repairs, is sold, is junked, or destroyed altogether, all of the evidence needed to uncover the reason behind the malfunctioning airbag will be gone.
Free Legal Review of an Airbag Failure Injury Claim in Los Angeles
Have you been injured as a result of an airbag failure during an automobile collision in Los Angeles? The Law Offices of Adrianos Facchetti provides a free legal consultation to examine the circumstances surrounding the car crash, the location of the involved vehicle, any injury reports, and any insurance claims that have been filed.
This review will determine if the vehicle should be preserved for examination by an expert and if there is an additional issue regarding the liability of the manufacturer of the airbag. We provide our services on a contingency fee arrangement; this means that there is no lawyer fee unless we receive compensation for your injury, and there are no guarantees about the outcome of your claim until after the facts have been evaluated.
