Kansas City Air Bag Defects Attorney

Seat belts and air bags combined make up the restraint system of the vehicle.  When air bags are designed and work properly, they can be a vehicle’s most important safety feature.  When they don’t, the result is often serious personal injury or death.

Most vehicles come equipped with frontal air bags for both the driver and front seat passenger.  Some vehicles are equipped with some form of side air bag.  Frontal air bags are required by government standards and have been installed by manufacturers in vehicles longer than side air bags.  Side air bags are not required by government standards and are therefore installed on vehicles at the discretion of the manufacturer. 

Side air bags come in a wide variety of types, including thorax air bags, head thorax air bags, side curtain air bags and rollover air bags.  Thorax bags are designed to protect the thorax and hips and are typically only found in the front seats.  Head thorax air bags provide the same protection as a basic thorax bag with the addition of head protection.  Side curtain air bags deploy from the roof rail of the vehicle and cover the side window to provide head protection to the vehicle occupants.  While side curtain air bags were first installed only for front seat occupants, many car manufacturers now provide side curtain air bags for second and third row occupants as well.  More recently, car manufacturers have begun to install rollover triggered or safety canopy air bags in vehicles.  Rollover air bags are designed to stay inflated for a period of time during a rollover accident to prevent occupants from being ejected during the rollover sequence.

Air bag defect cases typically fall into one of four categories:

Air Bag Non Deployment

The most obvious defect is when a frontal or side air bag fails to deploy in a crash.  These are commonly referred to as air bag non deployment or failure to deploy cases.  When air bags fail to deploy, belted and unbelted occupants can suffer serious personal injuries and death they would not have otherwise suffered.

Overly Aggressive Air Bags

Some air bag systems are defectively designed such that occupants are injured or killed by the deploying air bag.  This risk substantially increases if the occupant is struck by the air bag before it has completely deployed.

Inadvertent Air Bag Deployment

Air bags can cause serious injury or death if they deploy in minor or low speed accidents in which no injury would be expected.  Examples include unwanted deployment after striking a curb, a pothole or road debris.  Air bag deployment in such a situation can inflict injury and cause the driver to lose control of the vehicle.

Lack of Side Air Bags or Rollover Airbags

Because side and side curtain air bags are not mandated by the federal government, many manufacturers have chosen not to install them or make the available as options on certain vehicles.  This is a poor, cost-drive choice, as the benefits of side and side curtain air bags have been repeatedly proven.