Airbags save lives. Between 1987 and 2017, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates airbags saved over 50,000 lives and prevented tens of thousands of injuries. Airbags work in combination with seat belts to slow your forward motion after a frontal collision.
However, in saving lives, airbags can also cause injuries. They deploy with enormous force that can damage soft tissues and bones. A Friendswood airbag injury lawyer from The Law Firm of Alton C. Todd Personal Injury Lawyers can review your car accident and evaluate your case for compensation.
Contact our law office, you can call (281)-992-8633 to schedule a free initial consultation with an experienced personal injury lawyer in Friendswood, TX.
How Our Friendswood Car Accident Attorneys Can Help With an Airbag Injury Claim
The Law Firm of Alton C. Todd Personal Injury Lawyers has been helping injured clients in Friendswood, Texas, since its founding in 2000. Our Friendswood car accident lawyers have over 58 years of combined legal experience representing crash victims just like you.
After you suffer an airbag injury, our personal injury attorneys can provide:
- A free consultation to assess your claim and explain your rights
- Seasoned negotiators to work toward a settlement of your insurance claim
- Aggressive litigators who stand up to insurers that refuse to settle claims
Car accidents can disable you from working or meeting your daily needs. Contact The Law Firm of Alton C. Todd Personal Injury Lawyers to discuss your injuries and how we can help you recover fair compensation for their effects.
Which Crashes Cause Airbag Deployments?
Airbags are complicated devices, but you can boil them down to three components. A sensor, an inflator, and an airbag work together to detect a collision and rapidly form a safety cushion.
The sensor sits at the front of the vehicle to detect a frontal collision. These collisions happen when the front end of your vehicle hits an object.
Thus, your airbag will deploy under any of the following circumstances:
- You run into a fixed object in a single-vehicle accident
- The front of your vehicle hits another vehicle in a multi-vehicle collision
According to a query on Texas’s Crash Records Information System (CRIS), 257 collisions in Friendswood involved a frontal collision in 2022. Of these, 63 records show that the front airbags deployed. Friendswood’s car accident statistics show 559 total crashes that year. Thus, over 11% of crashes in Friendswood in 2022 involved an airbag deployment.
Airbag-Related Injuries in Friendswood Car Crashes
The crashes with airbag deployments in Friendswood included:
- One fatal crash
- One serious injury crash
- 12 minor injury crashes
- 15 possible injury crashes
- 33 non-injury crashes
However, the public records do not state whether the injuries happened because of airbags or despite them. According to the NHTSA, the fatality probably did not occur due to the airbag deployment.
Airbags caused 290 deaths between 1990 and 2008. But only 10% of airbag fatalities happened after 1998. That year, airbag regulations depowered inflators and required sensors to turn them off when they detect small passengers. If the vehicle involved in the fatal crash was newer than 1998, it should have included these safety features.
Airbags can still cause injuries in a few situations, including:
Children and Short Adults
Airbags pose two risks to children and small adults. Shorter vehicle occupants tend to sit closer to the dashboard and steering wheel. The force of the deploying airbag can snap their heads back, fracturing their necks.
Infants in Rear-Facing Car Seats
The CDC advises against rear-facing car seats in the front seat due to the risks posed by airbags. A deploying airbag can flip the seat and eject the infant. Infants can suffer severe injuries.
Passengers Without Seat Belts
Airbags catch your head and absorb the energy of its motion by deflating. But when you do not wear a seat belt, you can slam into the airbag with such force that it cannot stop your forward motion. Worse yet, without an airbag, you might fly forward just as the airbag deploys from its housing, slamming into your chest and neck.
Defective Airbags
Car manufacturers installed over 67 million defective Takata airbags into vehicles between 2002 and 2015. These airbags can deploy unexpectedly, and with so much force, the housing explodes. The vehicle occupant can get sprayed with shrapnel, injuring or killing them. To date, these airbags have killed 26 people and injured 400 more.
High-Speed Impacts
Some airbag injuries happen even when the airbag functions as intended. When your face impacts the airbag, it can save your life. But it can also fracture facial bones or bruise your face.
Liability For Airbag Injuries in Friendswood, TX
If someone else’s negligence caused your car accident, you can pursue compensation for all your injuries. Even though an airbag injury was a secondary outcome of the crash, it still flows naturally from the negligence. Thus, you should be able to prove that your airbag injury was caused by the at-fault driver.
Schedule a Free Consultation With Our Friendswood Airbag Injury Attorneys
Airbags can cause painful and disfiguring injuries. Contact today The Law Firm of Alton C. Todd Personal Injury Lawyers for a free consultation, you can call (281)-992-8633 to discuss your injuries and the compensation you can seek for them under Texas law.
We handle all types of car accident claims, including:
