Airbags fail in two opposite directions — not deploying when the crash demanded it, or deploying with injurious violence (including the shrapnel failures behind history’s largest auto recall). Either way, the airbag claim runs alongside the crash claim: the other driver answers for the collision; the manufacturer answers for what the safety system added or withheld.
- Non-deployment: sensors and thresholds are design questions — when a deployment-worthy crash gets none, the enhanced injuries are the manufacturer’s chapter, proven through the vehicle’s own data.
- Aggressive and defective deployment: facial, chest, and hand injuries beyond the crash’s own force — and the inflator-rupture recalls NHTSA catalogs, which make VIN recall checks step one.
- The preservation imperative: the vehicle, module, and airbag components must survive uninspected — total-loss processing destroys these cases weekly. The product-liability machinery needs the physical thing.
- The two-claim structure: crash fault via the standard analysis; enhanced-injury fault via product theory — coordinated, because damages divide between them.
Frequently Asked Questions
My airbag didn’t deploy in a hard crash. Is that automatically a defect?
Not automatically — deployment logic is threshold-based, and the vehicle’s event data answers whether this crash should have triggered it. That’s an engineering question worth asking before the car disappears to salvage.
The insurer wants to total and take the car. Should I let them?
Not before preservation is arranged if any airbag issue exists — releasing the vehicle releases the evidence. A preservation letter solves it; signing the title first doesn’t.
What does hiring you cost?
No attorney’s fee unless we recover; the contingency percentage and cost handling are in the written fee agreement. Consultations are free.
Questions about your situation? Call (215) 464-4600 or contact us online — free, confidential consultations, contingency-fee representation.