It’s easy to take airbags for granted. We rely on this vital safety feature to deploy in an accident and protect us from potentially severe injury. And when they work correctly, they save thousands of lives each year. But what if your airbags fail to deploy in a car accident? You may be entitled to compensation for your injuries, likely made much worse by the airbags not deploying.
This blog explains when airbags are supposed to deploy, what causes airbag failure, what steps you can take to prevent airbag failure, and what to do if your airbags fail to deploy in an accident.
When Should Airbags Deploy?
Airbags are designed to deploy during a collision, such as a front-end crash or a rollover.
In a frontal crash, the airbags should deploy when the front of the vehicle strikes a hazard, whether that’s another car, a tree, a pole, or a barrier. The point is to cushion the occupants, soften the impact, and prevent the driver or passenger from being thrown into the steering wheel, dashboard, or windshield.
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In a rollover collision, the airbags should deploy when the vehicle is thrown off balance. This protects occupants from being thrown out of the car as it turns.
How Airbags Work
But the airbags don’t — or, at least, shouldn’t — deploy at random, so how do they work? Every vehicle has sensors, which detect when a collision is occurring. If the sensors detect a severe impact from another vehicle or object, or register a change in angle (which can indicate the vehicle is rolling over, the sensors signal the airbag deployment system, resulting in the airbags inflating. This happens almost immediately — within a fraction of a second.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), front airbags will deploy when the force of a crash is the equivalent of hitting a wall between 10 and 16 miles per hour. The higher threshold applies to crashes in which occupants wear a seatbelt, as these provide additional protection against injury.
We can quickly see how catastrophic a car accident might be if the airbags fail to deploy. A driver in a front-end collision might smack their head against the steering wheel, resulting in a traumatic brain injury. Such an injury might even have a long-term impact, affecting their speech, ability to regulate emotions, and relationships with others.
A driver in a rollover accident might be struck by debris or ejected from their vehicle if the airbags fail to deploy and protect them. They might be thrown into the path of oncoming traffic — which can be fatal — or skid across the road and sustain severe burns or facial trauma, leaving permanent, visible scarring.
Reasons Airbags Fail to Deploy
So why might airbags not deploy in a car accident?
Several factors can affect whether airbags deploy in an accident. These include:
- How fast the vehicle was going
- The type of car accident you’re in and its impact
- The severity of the impact (for example, a minor bump that knocks a car forward a couple of feet versus a high-speed shunt)
- The location of the impact.
Sensors can be in perfect working order but fail to send a signal to the airbags to deploy. This issue is more common in rear-end collisions, as the airbag sensors are at the front of many of today’s cars. Airbags can also not deploy during minor impacts, such as being rear-ended by a slow-moving car.
While rear-end collisions are typically less severe than front-end or rollover collisions, they can still result in severe injuries that require lengthy treatment and rehabilitation. Rear-end collisions often cause a concussion or whiplash-type injuries, as the unexpected shunt causes a driver or passenger’s head or neck, respectively, to jolt forward and back.
What Causes Airbag Failure?
Airbag failure can happen for several reasons, including manufacturing defects, electrical problems, and deactivation.
Manufacturing Defects
Airbags are complex devices made up of many different parts, including:
- The airbag itself, usually made from a synthetic fabric coated in a surfactant. This substance helps the airbag to deploy evenly and reduce the risk of burns.
- The inflator, located inside the airbag. When the deployment sensors detect an accident, they signal the inflator to release a gas — typically nitrogen or argon — into the airbag, causing it to inflate rapidly.
If any of these parts are faulty or incorrectly assembled, the airbag may not work.
Electrical Problems
Likewise, a problem with the electrical system or sensors can cause airbags to fail to deploy. Severe crashes can even sever the wires that control the airbag system, causing it to deactivate when it’s needed the most.
Deactivation
Newer vehicles may have airbag systems that automatically deactivate passenger airbags when they cannot detect a passenger or if the passenger is a child. This is because airbags can be incredibly dangerous to children, capable of causing death or brain injury. Side airbag systems will also automatically deactivate airbags when a child sits too close to them.
Airbag Previously Deployed
Finally, an airbag might not deploy if you’re driving a used car that has previously been in a crash and the airbags weren’t replaced. You can reset some older airbags, but modern airbags are designed for single use. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recommends motorists replace deployed airbags immediately after a crash at an authorized service center and not drive their car until they’ve done so. Unfortunately, you might not know this is the case until you’re in a crash.
Inspecting Your Vehicle
It’s vital to regularly inspect and maintain your vehicle to ensure that all safety features are functioning correctly. This includes following your car manufacturer’s recommended maintenance schedule and having any issues repaired promptly.
If your airbags are defective, you should see an airbag indicator on your dashboard. This light is your car’s internal mechanism for detecting airbag failure.
An airbag indicator light can appear for many reasons, including:
- Drained battery
- Faulty sensors
- Damaged or worn clock spring
- Water damage
- Sensor activation without causing full deployment.
However, it’s not always possible to prevent airbag failure. If you’re in an accident and the airbags did not deploy when they should have, you may have a legal compensation claim.
What to Do If Your Airbags Did Not Deploy in an Accident
If you have been involved in an accident and your airbags did not deploy, there are several steps you should take:
Seek Medical Attention
The priority after any accident should be to seek medical attention for any injuries you or your passengers may have sustained. Even if you don’t think you were seriously injured, it’s vital to get checked out by a medical professional. Some injuries, such as concussions and whiplash, don’t present symptoms immediately but can have a long-term impact on your health.
Getting checked out ensures you receive any treatment you need and gives you a record of when your injuries occurred. This step is crucial if you are entitled to claim compensation, as it proves your injuries happened because of your accident and not later in an unrelated event.
Call the Police
Each state sets its own rules on when you need to report a car accident to the police. In Texas, you must report an accident if it causes death, injury, or property damage of more than $1,000. If the accident results in a fatality or injury, you must report it immediately. Otherwise, you have 10 days to report the accident.
When law enforcement arrives at the accident scene, they’ll contain the area and speak to those involved and any witnesses. They’ll compile their findings into a crash report document, which can be a vital piece of evidence for your claim. If you report to the police officer that your airbag failed to deploy, they will note it in their report, which makes it harder for the other party to dispute.
Determine What Caused the Failure
Understanding what caused the failure can help you determine whether you have a compensation claim.
For example, if you were in a high-speed crash, the sensors should have detected you were in danger and deployed the airbags appropriately. A failure indicates that a defect or malfunction may be responsible.
You can inspect your vehicle for signs of airbag or sensor damage after a crash, but note that any visible damage could have been caused by the impact. A mechanic may be able to determine if the damage was present before the accident.
You cannot claim against a manufacturer if your airbag failed to deploy after striking a curb, pothole, or small animal, as airbags are not designed to deploy in these types of collisions. However, you may be able to claim compensation from other parties who may be liable for your accident, such as a reckless driver or an organization responsible for maintaining the road.
Notify the Manufacturer or Dealership
If you believe that the airbag failure was due to a manufacturing defect or problem with the vehicle, you should notify the manufacturer and the dealership you purchased the vehicle from (if applicable).
It’s important to notify the dealership in case the issue is not an anomaly and vehicles need to be recalled or immediately recalled, as was the case with millions of Takata airbags in what the NHTSA called “the largest and most complex safety recall in U.S. history”.
Gather Evidence
If you believe your airbags failed to deploy because of a defect and you wish to claim compensation, you need to gather evidence.
It’s worth mentioning that you’ll likely be able to claim compensation from multiple parties — the person or company that caused your crash and the manufacturer or dealership responsible for the airbag failing to deploy. In some cases, you may be able to recover compensation from a mechanic or service center, such as if they check your airbags and spot damage or a defect and fail to repair it.
Let’s say you’re driving down the road, and a motorist heading in the opposite direction is weaving. They weave in front of you as they approach you, resulting in a head-on collision. Your airbags only partially deploy, causing you to sustain a traumatic brain injury. When the police arrive, they discover the other driver was driving under the influence (DUI). An investigation of your vehicle reveals that the inflator was faulty.
In this case, you’d be entitled to compensation from the drunk driver (who caused the accident by being reckless) and the airbag manufacturer (for the deployment failure).
You’re entitled to recover the costs of medical treatment, lost wages from being unable to work, pain and suffering, and more. Evidence supporting your case can include:
- Bills for medical treatment
- Payslips to prove your income (so you can recover your lost wages)
- Receipts or quotes for car repairs
- A copy of your crash report
- Photographs of the scene showing vehicle damage and how the accident happened
- Contact details of any witnesses to the accident
- Photographs or videos of your injuries.
Proving airbag damage can be difficult, but it can be helpful to take photographs of your car’s interior and retain any documentation provided by your mechanic that indicates a defect was present. You should also gather your maintenance records to prove you had your vehicle inspected regularly.
Consult a Personal Injury Lawyer
Your next step should be to consult a personal injury lawyer. Even the most straightforward of crashes can be complex when it comes to recovering compensation. The other side’s attorney may dispute your version of events or challenge your evidence. Then, they might lowball you during negotiations to tempt you to settle quickly — even though you’re likely entitled to significantly more.
When you’re entitled to recover compensation for an airbag failure, hiring an attorney becomes even more important. It’s not enough to prove that your airbags didn’t deploy — you must also show that the defect was present before you received your vehicle and that it caused or contributed to your injuries.
In a severe crash, a manufacturer may claim that you would have sustained similar injuries even if the airbags did deploy, and they may be unwilling to accept liability.
Our car accident lawyers in San Antonio and McAllen can help you determine if you have a claim, speak to witnesses, gather evidence, and negotiate a fair settlement on your behalf. Should negotiations fail, we can proceed to trial and present your case in front of a jury.
How to Protect Yourself from Airbags Not Deploying
If your airbags have a design or manufacturing defect, you may not know about it until it’s too late and you’re already in a crash. However, you can take steps to protect yourself, minimize the impact, or even reduce the likelihood of an airbag deployment failure.
Wear a seatbelt: There’s a reason seatbelts are the primary safety feature in a vehicle — they can significantly reduce the risk of injury in an accident. Even if your airbags don’t deploy, a seatbelt can prevent you from striking the dashboard or even being thrown from your vehicle.
Choose a car with reliable airbags: When shopping for a new car, research the safety ratings and reliability of the vehicle. Ideally, you want a car with a good track record for airbag performance and overall safety. If you’re buying a used car, do due diligence — what’s the car’s damage history? If the airbags have previously been deployed, make sure they have been replaced.
Follow the manufacturer’s maintenance recommendations: Staying on top of vehicle maintenance and repairs can help prevent airbag failure and other safety issues. Make sure you follow the recommended maintenance schedule from your manufacturer.
Know your legal rights: If you have been injured in a car accident because your airbags didn’t deploy, you may be entitled to compensation. A personal injury attorney can explain your legal rights and next steps.
Airbags are a vital safety feature in modern vehicles, but when they don’t work, they can result in horrific injuries. If you’ve been in a car accident that wasn’t your fault — however it happened — you might be able to file a claim. Contact our personal injury lawyers in McAllen and San Antonio today for a free, no-obligation case review.
