Airbag Did Not Deploy in a Crash: Can You Sue, and Whom?

Frontal airbags are controlled by sensors and a module that estimate crash severity in the first milliseconds of an impact and fire the inflators only when the crash is severe enough that the airbag will reduce injury more than it risks causing it. Deployment thresholds vary by vehicle but are generally a frontal or near-frontal impact equivalent to hitting a fixed barrier at a moderate speed, roughly in the range of 8 to 14 miles per hour against a rigid wall, which corresponds to higher speeds against another vehicle.

Frontal airbags are not designed to deploy in rear-end collisions, in most side impacts, in rollovers, or in low-speed crashes, even ones that cause significant vehicle damage. Side and curtain airbags have their own sensors and criteria. Many people are injured in crashes where the airbags did not deploy, look at the damage, and assume the system failed. Often it worked as designed.

The question in a claim is therefore not whether the airbag deployed but whether the crash met the criteria for deployment and the airbag failed anyway. That is an engineering question answered by the vehicle's event data recorder, which records whether the system commanded deployment and the crash pulse it measured, and by a reconstruction of the impact.

Defects that prevent deployment include faulty crash sensors, a defective control module, damaged or corroded wiring, software errors, and inflators that fail to fire. Some are manufacturing defects in a particular vehicle; others are design defects across a model, which is when recalls happen. A history of recalls or complaints for the vehicle's make and model, available through NHTSA's databases, is relevant evidence.

The claim also requires showing that the non-deployment caused or worsened the injury. A person who would have struck the steering wheel with their face regardless of the airbag has a different claim from one whose facial fractures the airbag would have prevented. Biomechanical experts address this, and the injury pattern, facial and chest injuries from the wheel or dashboard in a frontal crash with no deployment, is itself evidence.

The opposite failures also produce claims. Airbags that deploy late, after the occupant has already moved forward, can cause injury. Airbags that deploy in a minor crash where they should not have can cause burns, fractures and hearing damage. And defective inflators, most notably in the Takata recall affecting tens of millions of vehicles, can rupture and send metal fragments into the cabin.

Suppose you were driving when another driver turned left across your path and you struck the side of their car head-on at about 35 miles per hour. Your frontal airbag did not deploy. Your face struck the steering wheel, fracturing your nose and orbital bone and breaking four teeth, with $68,000 in medical and dental bills and reconstructive surgery still ahead. The other driver was clearly at fault and carried a $100,000 policy.

Your attorney had the vehicle preserved at a storage yard rather than released to the insurer's salvage auction, and an engineer downloaded the event data recorder. It showed a frontal crash pulse well above the deployment threshold and a sensor fault code logged seconds before impact. A product claim against the manufacturer was added to the claim against the driver.

The driver's insurer paid its $100,000 limit for the crash itself. The product claim, for the facial injuries the airbag would have prevented, was pursued against the manufacturer, whose resources were not limited by a policy. Without the preserved vehicle and the event data, the product claim could not have been proven and the recovery would have ended at $100,000. All figures are hypothetical.

Airbag claims are lost in the first week more often than at any later stage, because the vehicle is released to salvage before anyone looks at it.

• Tell your insurer in writing that you believe the airbag should have deployed and that the vehicle must not be scrapped, repaired or sold until it has been inspected.
• Arrange storage at a yard where the vehicle is held intact, and expect to pay for it; the cost is small compared with the claim.
• Photograph the interior, the undeployed airbag covers, the steering wheel and dashboard, and any contact marks, before anyone touches them.
• Keep every record of your injuries, with particular attention to facial, chest and head injuries consistent with striking the interior.
• Note the crash type: a frontal or near-frontal impact supports the claim; a rear-end or side-swipe generally does not.
• Check NHTSA's recall database for the vehicle's make, model and year, and for any open airbag recall you were not notified of.
• Consult an attorney who handles product liability claims within days, not weeks; the event data recorder download requires specialist equipment.

Product liability claims are governed by state law and most states apply strict liability to defective products, so the claim does not require proving the manufacturer was negligent, only that the product was defective and the defect caused the injury. Some states require proof of a feasible safer design in design-defect cases, and a few apply negligence standards. Statutes of repose in a number of states bar product claims for vehicles older than a set number of years from sale, typically 10 to 15, regardless of when the injury occurred.

Comparative negligence applies to product claims in most states, so a driver partly at fault for the crash may see the product recovery reduced, and in the contributory negligence states, Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia, the rules for product claims vary and should be checked. Seatbelt non-use is raised in airbag cases because airbags are designed to work with belts; some states bar the argument and others allow it.

The deadline for a product claim is usually the state's general injury deadline, one year in Tennessee and Kentucky, two in Texas, California, Florida and Georgia, three in New York and North Carolina, running from the crash. Federal recalls, including the Takata inflator recall, do not change state deadlines, but a manufacturer's recall notice and its timing can be evidence of what it knew.

An airbag claim requires an engineer to download and interpret the event data recorder, a reconstruction of the crash pulse, an analysis of the airbag module's logic and fault codes, and often a biomechanical opinion on which injuries deployment would have prevented. The manufacturer defends with its own engineers and with the argument that the system worked as designed. The costs of pursuing the claim are substantial, which is why attorneys evaluate carefully before taking one.

The claims that proceed are the ones where the crash was clearly within deployment criteria, the injuries are the kind an airbag prevents, the vehicle was preserved, and the data supports a failure. Claims involving known recall defects, where the manufacturer has already acknowledged the problem, are stronger still.

A claim against the at-fault driver proceeds regardless and should not wait on the product question. The two run in parallel, and the product claim exists because the driver's policy is often too small for injuries that a working airbag would have prevented.

An airbag claim depends on a vehicle that most insurers want to scrap within days and on data that only a specialist can read. The questions to answer immediately are whether the crash was one in which the airbag should have deployed, whether the vehicle has been preserved, and whether the injuries are the kind deployment would have prevented. Most personal injury attorneys work on contingency, and product claims are evaluated by attorneys who handle them.

Ask Legal Matters is a free claim-review request service, not a law firm. Requests may be shared with independent attorneys and legal services partners who handle inquiries in your state, and an attorney must evaluate the facts and the vehicle before anyone can say whether a product claim exists. If your airbag did not deploy in a serious frontal crash, you can request a free claim review before the vehicle is released.

• Car Accident Claims in the United States: The Complete Guide
• Truck Accident Claims: Liability, Federal Rules and Compensation
• At Fault in a Car Accident? Comparative Negligence Explained
• What Is the Average Car Accident Settlement? What Sets the Value
• Back and Neck Injury Settlement After a Car Accident: Factors
• Bicycle Accident Claim: Hit by a Car While Riding
• Broken Bone Car Accident Settlement: What Drives the Value
• Burn Injury Claim: Who Is Liable and How the Value Is Set

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