Airbags are one of the most important safety gears in motor vehicles such as cars and SUVs. These are cushions built into a vehicle that are intended to inflate in case of a car accident in order to protect occupants from injuries by preventing them from striking the interior of vehicle during a crash.
Airbags are one of the most important safety gears in motor vehicles such as cars and SUVs. These are cushions built into a vehicle that are intended to inflate in case of a car accident in order to protect occupants from injuries by preventing them from striking the interior of vehicle during a crash.
There are actually 2 types of airbags that are necessary to passenger safety – the frontal airbags and the side airbags. Frontal airbags can be a lifesaver especially in head-on collisions or rear-end accidents as in most crashes, the impact would propel occupants forward and without an airbag to cushion their heads or chests from striking the steering wheel, the instrument panel, or the windshield – they can sustain serious head injuries or internal trauma.
Side airbags are just as essential to passenger safety – in case of T-bone collisions, or when the vehicle gets hit on the side or would collide with stationary objects, these airbags can cushion and spread the load of the crash’s impact. Aside from minimizing the effect of the crash, side airbags that offer head protection are usually the only thing that can protect the passenger’s head against the front of a vehicle or the ground in case of a rollover accident.
Since airbags have been used in the 1990s, thousands of lives have been saved because of it. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 28,000 people are alive because of frontal airbags. Frontal airbags reduce the risk of fatalities for drivers by as much as 29 percent and 32 percent for front seat passenger drivers. Side airbags also reduce the risk of death in a driver side crash by 37 percent, and in SUV crashes, by as much as 52 percent.
While airbags have proven to be a successful safety gear for motor vehicle occupants, there are instances of unintended adverse effects which can result to injury or death for the occupants. While most complaints deal with minor injuries like bruises or abrasions, there are instances when airbags can hurt passengers especially if they are children or infants and if the airbags themselves have an inherent defect.
According to the NHTSA, most of the passenger deaths involving airbags were children or infants, majority of whom were unbelted or placed in rear-facing child safety seats that placed their heads closed to the deploying airbag.
To avoid this danger, parents should be mindful of where they place their children, particularly infants in safety seats and young children. It is advisable for children to be placed in the back seat and on age-appropriate child safety seats and secured with a seatbelt. Young children, especially those below the age of 12 years old should not be seated in the front passenger seat as they are the most at risk when the frontal airbag deploys in a crash.
Dealing with defective airbags however, is not as easy to solve as putting your child in the back seat. Any passenger could be hurt by an airbag especially if the defect can cause an explosion, an unintended inflation, failure to deploy during a collision, or even, as seen in one case, cause shards of metal to scatter in case of deployment.
Under such circumstances, if you or a loved one was hurt by a defective airbag during an accident, a Southern California personal injury attorney should be sought for legal advice or representation.
