Do I have a personal injury lawsuit if my airbags did not deploy in an accident? 29 Answers as of February 17, 2012

Depends how badly you were hurt and if the deployment of the airbags would have prevented your injuries.

You may have a claim against your insurance company, but you also probably have a claim against the auto manufacturer, the air bag manufacturer, and/or any dealer or service center who serviced the air bags if they failed to deploy when they should have. Such cases are very expensive to prosecute, and are only worth attempting if you or someone else in the vehicle has very serious injuries.

You need an expert to examine the airbags before you make any repairs and you need to do it now. Yes, you have a claim if the expert says that there was negligent manufacture or design of the airbags.

You may have a personal injury lawsuit for a possible defective product. However, your insurance company will not be liable for your injuries. You will have to pursue the manufacturer of the airbags and/or the vehicle to recover anything. There are some very tricky aspects to product liability cases and you need someone who is familiar with this type of case.

You would need an engineer or product design expert to testify that the air bag was defective, and prove that your injuries would have been avoided had the airbag deployed. If your injuries are significant, you may have a case. However, if they relatively minor, it would not be worth pursuing because of the cost of hiring the experts and getting a case like that ready.

If the accident was your fault, you have no claim from your insurance beyond repair or replacement of your vehicle and your med pay coverage. The fact that your airbags did not deploy does not necessarily mean that you sustained greater injury. Even if the failure was directly relatable to your injuries, no product liability suit against a major automobile manufacturer would be viable unless you sustained life altering injuries such as paralysis or significant cognitive deficits.

You would need to prove that the airbags were defective. In order to do so, you will need to hire an expert to inspect your car to see if they were faulty. This will costs thousands of dollars to do. Even if you find one successfully, the defendants will have an expert of their own to combat your expert's findings. Assuming the airbags are defective, you will then have the burden of proving what ADDITIONAL injuries you received as a result of the airbags not deploying properly. In other words, you need to be able to show your injuries would have been different had the airbags deployed. This is a very difficult thing to do considering your car flipped over. If your injuries are not severe, I don't think it is worth pursuing any further. These are extremely expensive claims to prosecute, and you will probably be wasting your time. In any event, you can always contact an experienced personal injury attorney in your area for a consultation.

You may have a claim.

You would need to prove that the failure of your airbags to deploy was the cause or a cause of your injuries. You would also have to prove that airbags should have deployed for this type of impact. Much of what you speak about would require outside experts who would be expensive. If your injuries are significant this may be worth exploring.

You may have a product liability claim against the manufacturer of your vehicle. It is difficult to evaluate your claim based upon the limited information you provided. In a nut shell, you will have to prove that the airbags were defective and that as a result of the defect, you were injured. You should consult an attorney who handles product liability cases so that a thorough evaluation and investigation can be done. These cases are typically expensive and most involve very serious or catastrophic injury or death. If you want to pursue a case, you should make sure that you keep the vehicle in a secure place and in its post-accident condition so that an expert can look at the air bags. You would not have a claim against your insurance company. If you do have medical payment coverage, your insurance company will pay your accident related medical bills up to your policy limit.

You do have a cause of action for the additional injuries from the lack of airbags. You must prove that the airbags should have deployed and were defective.

You may have a products liability claim against the manufacturer of the airbags.

Technically, maybe. If your injuries are extremely serious, permanent, there may be a claim. Otherwise, suing an airbag manufacturer would not be worthwhile. It could cost tens of thousands of dollars. Then, no guarantee you win. Lots of things happen in courtrooms. Best to you, and I hope you having no serious injury. Concerning your car damage, that's on you, as it was your fault, and you should obviously use your insurance for that.

The question is whether or not the airbags functioned properly under the circumstances . You need to talk to a personal injury attorney who handles defective product issues

Generally, your own insurance company is required to cover the first $3,000 under their no fault "PIP" coverage for your initial medical bills. In Utah, all policies must have at least $3,000 in PIP coverage. This only covers the initial medical bills though and only up to the PIP limit. Beyond that, however, if there were no other drivers/parties involved in the accident, you may be out of luck unless you can prove the failure of your airbags to deploy was negligence by the manufacturer, in which case maybe you could go after the maker of the car.

No, you would have to sue the manufacturer. Call a lawyer.

Excuse me, compensation for what? You did not say you were hurt. Are you looking for damage to the front of your car? What are you looking for? Airbags are designed to keep people from flying thru a windshield or being thrown out of the car. They are not designed to do magic stuff and they certainly don't guarantee there will be no injury to the driver, only hopefully to keep him in his seat during a collision/accident

No, airbags deploy only when they are impacted in certain manner. Not every incident will deploy bags.