Even though seat belt and airbags are put in place to protect drivers and passengers, sometimes they contribute to injuries. Defective seat belts and airbags can also cause more damage than the actual impact with the other vehicle or object outside your car.
Seat belt injuries and airbag injuries can occur if equipment has design, production or installation defects. With defective safety features, you can sustain injuries to internal organs, face or skin. Fractures, eye damage or loss of vision can also be a result of defective safety products.
Most recently in 2015, more than 30 million airbags made by Takata have been recalled from cars by 10 different manufacturers. These airbags could deploy explosively, injuring or even killing car occupants.
The problem with these airbag is the inflator, a metal cartridge loaded with propellant wafers, which in some cases has ignited with explosive force. If the inflator housing ruptures in a crash, metal shards from the airbag can be sprayed throughout the passenger cabin.
Nailing down the root cause and determining which of Takata’s several inflator designs is implicated has been tough for Takata, the automakers, and independent investigators to establish. It now appears there are multiple causes, as well as several contributing factors, including poor quality control in manufacture, several years of exposure in high heat and humidity regions, and even the design of the car itself. If the propellant wafers break down, due to high humidity or another cause, the result is that the propellant burns too rapidly, creating excessive pressure in the inflator body.
If you've been injured by an airbag or seatbelt, contact us today to see if you have a case. Call us at 816-842-7100 to speak with an attorney that will fight to get you the compensation you deserve. Or you can click here to email us and schedule your free consultation.