Lewisville Texas Airbag Injury Law Firm
Defective Airbag
An airbag is a safety device designed to deploy in the event of a sudden deceleration or impact to your vehicle. Many new cars today come with airbags packed into steering wheels as well as "side curtain" airbags, which protect against side impacts.
Airbags serve to cushion passengers against the shocks and stresses of a Texas car collision. To provide this cushion correctly, however, they must eject rapidly – at speeds approaching 100 miles per hour or more. Airbags can create a tremendous impact force. If this force is improperly directed at a driver or a passenger, severe injury can occur.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as of 2010 recommended that drivers maintain at least 10 inches distance between the breastbone and the airbag located on the steering wheel. If you sit too close to the steering wheel, and you get into an accident, the ejection of the airbag can cause injuries. For instance, it can crack your ribs.
Airbags should be used in conjunction with safety belts and lap belts. If you do not wear your safety belt, and the airbag deploys, you can be severely injured. It’s also not enough just to wear a safety belt – you need to wear it correctly. A pregnant woman, for instance, should have the lap belt across her hips (not across her stomach) and the shoulder belt across her chest. Never put a rear facing infant seat near an airbag module, as deployment of an airbag near the child’s head could result in serious injury.
Defective airbags can also cause serious injury, whether or not you maintain best practices as discussed above. A flawed airbag can deploy at an angle, fail to deploy, or deploy with too much force.
If you or someone you love has been injured by an airbag – or injured as a result of an airbag’s failure to deploy – you may have legal recourse to get compensation for your medical bills, pain and suffering, time off work, and other costs. For a free consultation with a top Lewisville TX car accident injury attorney, call 214.333.HELP (4357) to speak with Dina Steele. Get a free consultation about your airbag injury by calling today.