Expert: Demanski & Ellis, plc - 9/18/2006

Question
I know of a person involved a one car accident.  She lost control of SUV in bad weather and suffered a broken nose with the airbag failed to deploy. The frame of the SUV was bent in three places. There was no other crash data available other than the insurance repair appraisal. Should she pursue a claim based on the airbag failure to deploy?  

Answer
Warren:

A couple of points on this.

Airbags deploy fast and they can and do cause injuries.  They are set to go off when the likelihood of injury from the impact is greater than the risk of injury from a deployed airbag.  Interestingly, one of the injuries that can be caused by an airbag is a broken nose.

On the other hand, serious facial injuries is in part what airbags are designed to help prevent.

The bent frame would make me think that the impact in this accident was of the type that an airbag would deploy.

Airbag lawsuit have many difficulties.  The first one is that airbags are not designed to go off in all accidents.  An airbag deploys when there is a certain amount of pressure on the sensor that deploys the airbag.  To be successful it is necessary to prove that the reason an airbag did not deploy is because the sensor was defective.  If the impact misses the sensor it will not deploy.  

An impact that hits the front fender, or headlight area at an angle may miss the sensors for the front airbag.  An impact the is high on the front end, such as one in which the front of the car is hit above the grill can be very serious but go over the top of the sensor and the airbag will not deploy.  The same can happen if the impact is low and goes under the bumper.  Side impacts and rear impacts normally will not set off a front airbag.

Since airbags are not fool proof, airbag lawsuits are not easy.  They require expert testimony that the injury would not have occurred but for a defective airbag.  That is expensive and the auto industry is very good at defending these cases.  

To go forward she must preserve the auto in the condition it was in following the accident.  It will need to be available to be examined by they experts for both sides.

If after an expert has examined the vehicle it appears that there is little doubt that the airbag was defective, would have deployed if not defective and she would not have been injured if airbag deployed, there is the prejudicial obstacle that the real cause of the injury was the drivers negligence.  That is not a defense against her but a jury will not like to give money to a person that they view as causing her own injury.

When weighing the cost of this type of case, the difficulty of success, and the fact that the injury is not that serious, or as lawyers look at it not worth much money, I would not take the case.  I would advise a client that came to see me on this type of claim forget it and get on with there life.  My worry would be that they would continue to look for an attorney that would take the case, and they would find an attorney that would take the case, and it would just cost them money.  So I guess my answer is that I would not take the case.  Good luck to her, I hope her nose heals well.

David Demanski

p.s. I do not proof read responses, I take the time to answer questions on this site but I do not have time to proof the responses.  I hope the response is understandable.  Please excuse the inevitable typos.