Alpert Schreyer Personal Injury Lawyers | April 22, 2025 | Car Accident
When airbags inflate during a car accident, they provide a cushion that prevents or limits injuries to the occupants. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), car airbags saved over 50,000 lives between a recent thirty-year period, which is about 17,000 lives per decade. Unfortunately, airbag deployment failure is not at all uncommon, and these failures result in unnecessary car accident injuries and wrongful deaths.
Reasons for Non-Deployment
Airbags deploy at high speeds—faster than a human can react. So, how fast does an airbag deploy? Up to 200 mph, faster than the blink of an eye. Because of the speed at which an accident happens, any significant delay will render an airbag useless.
Insufficient Impact
Airbag systems contain sensors that prevent them from deploying during minor accidents. This makes sense because airbags themselves sometimes cause injury. In some cases, your car’s impact might occur in such a way that it is totaled without triggering the sensors that would activate the airbags. This result is unusual, but not unheard of.
Child Passenger or Child-Sized Passenger
Some airbags will not inflate if the person sitting in the passenger seat is below a certain height. This is because an airbag can injure or suffocate a child or a very small adult. You should restrain children in car seats instead of depending on seat belts and an airbag. You might even have to restrain a very small adult.
Your Car Lacks Side-Impact Airbags
Your car’s front-impact airbags probably won’t deploy during a side-impact car accident. Even if they do, they won’t help you. Side impact car accidents result in a completely different distribution of forces than head-on impacts.
Although most modern cars are fully equipped with side-impact airbags, some older models lack this feature. You need to be especially careful when you purchase a used car, because they often lack side impact airbags.
All Passengers Are Wearing Seat Belts
Airbags deploy at lower-speed impacts (at about 10-12 mph) when a passenger is not wearing their seat belt. When passengers are wearing seat belts, they typically won’t deploy until about 16 mph.
When the system is working the way it should, this is not a malfunction, and nobody should suffer an injury because of it. It’s just that when you’re wearing your seat belt, you’re less in need of an airbag. A malfunction of this system, however, can cause or exacerbate an injury.
The Airbag Sensor Malfunctions
The airbag sensor tells the airbag when to deploy. Airbag sensor malfunctions can generate a product liability claim against a manufacturer or distributor when they arise from a design defect, a manufacturing defect, or inadequate product warnings. You don’t have to prove that the defendant was negligent to win.
Recalls
If an airbag defect caused your airbag not to deploy, your car might have been recalled without your knowledge. After all, manufacturers don’t normally announce automobile recalls on billboards. You need to keep up with any recalls affecting your vehicle.
Even in the case of a recall, an airbag deployment failure is not your fault if you reasonably didn’t know about the recall. If you knew or should have known of the recall but ignored it, you might share blame.
The Airbags Have Been Deployed Before
You should always replace your airbags after they deploy. If you don’t, they won’t deploy the second time around. Some used cars might suffer from this defect.
Contact a Maryland Car Accident Lawyer
While the failure of an airbag to deploy is never the cause of a car accident, it is often the cause of an injury. On other occasions, the failure of an airbag to deploy renders an injury far more serious than it otherwise would have been. Either way, you will probably need an experienced Maryland car accident lawyer to maximize the value of your claim.
Contact the Car Accident Lawyers at Alpert Schreyer Personal Injury Lawyers in Maryland for Help Today
For more information, please contact Alpert Schreyer Personal Injury Lawyers to schedule a confidential consultation with a car accident lawyer. Our team is available to assist clients in Lanham, Frederick, Rockville, Waldorf, Annapolis, and Lexington Park, Maryland.
We proudly serve Charles County, Prince George County its surrounding areas. Visit our law offices at:
Alpert Schreyer Personal Injury Lawyers – Waldorf Office
8 Post Office Rd Waldorf, MD 20602
(301) 932-9997
Available 24/7
Alpert Schreyer Personal Injury Lawyers – Lanham Office
4600 Forbes Blvd Ste #200 Lanham, MD 20706
(301) 936-0011
Available 24/7