One of the most common phone calls we receive is from consumers wondering why their air bag did not deploy during a crash.  This article describes how air bag deployment thresholds are established, the kinds of crashes during which air bags should deploy, and crashes where they may not deploy.  It also provides information on several different defects that may be responsible for the air bag failing to deploy when it should deploy.

AIR BAG DEPLOYMENT THRESHOLDS

Conventional air bags are generally designed to deploy in certain frontal crashes above the thresholds selected by the manufacturer.  Unfortunately, the consumer often cannot determine the thresholds for their car, as they vary widely between manufacturers, and even vary among different models from the same manufacturer.  However, there are some general guidelines that are helpful for consumers.

Although there were some variations, most frontal air bags from the 1990s were designed to deploy in crashes above a threshold level of 14 mph into a solid concrete barrier.  At the same time, most air bag systems were also designed to never deploy in crashes below 8 mph into a solid concrete barrier.  Between these two speeds, the air bags may or may not deploy, depending on the specifics of the accident and vehicle.

Airbag Deployment Threshold

The bottom line is this: airbag should always deploy in every crash where they are likely to prevent serious personal injury or a wrongful death.  If your crash severity exceeds the car company’s thresholds, and yet your air bags did not deploy, you may well have a defect in your vehicle’s air bag system.

CRASHES WHERE THE AIR BAG SHOULD DEPLOY

Your air bags should deploy in every crash where they will help prevent your injuries.  This means that your air bag should deploy in those crashes where you would otherwise suffer injuries of the type that the air bag is designed to prevent: head, neck, and chest injuries.  For example, your frontal air bag should deploy in an accident where your head would otherwise be injured from hitting your steering wheel.  Shown here is an example of an accident vehicle in which the air bags should have deployed.

Ford Airbag Failed to Deploy

Although frontal air bags are generally not designed to deploy in side impacts or rollovers, in some cases they should deploy in those kinds of crashes.  That is because some side impacts or rollovers also cause front-to-back deceleration that causes you to move forward inside your vehicle.  One example would be if you were driving at highway speed and were hit on the side of your car: in addition to crushing in the side of the car, your car would also slow down its forward motion rapidly, which could be enough to deploy your frontal air bags.  Similarly, frontal air bags should generally not deploy in rear impacts; however, if you are hit from behind and pushed into a car in front of you, that second impact to your car’s front end may justify deployment of your air bags.

For side impact air bags, they should generally deploy on the side of the car experiencing the side impact.  Similarly, rollover “curtain” air bags should deploy when the vehicle experiences a rollover, to help prevent head and neck injuries and to reduce the risk of being ejected through an open or shattered window.
     
Examples of crashes where air bag deployment would be expected include moderate to severe crashes involving your front bumper or the front corners of your vehicle, frontal impacts to a utility or telephone pole, and under-ride impacts where the front of your car goes under the side or back of a truck.

CRASHES WHERE THE AIR BAG SHOULD NOT DEPLOY

Your air bags should not deploy in those accidents where they will not prevent your injuries.  After all, air bags can deploy at speeds of more than 200 mph, and you should not be exposed to those kinds of forces if it won’t help you.  Thus, your frontal air bags should not deploy in side impacts, rear impacts and rollovers where there is no significant deceleration from front to back.  Other examples of crashes where your frontal air bags should not generally deploy include:

• Minor frontal crashes
• Most impacts to the undercarriage of the vehicle, such as when crossing a railroad, unless they would result in serious personal injury
• Impacts with animals such as deer or dogs
• Impacts with street curbs or parking blocks
• Driving on rough roads, including those with large potholes, gravel or bumps

Of course, your air bags should never deploy when your vehicle is not in an accident.  Although this seems obvious, there are actually many cases where this has occurred, often due to poor design of the air bag system software, or due to electrical issues with the air bag system.

WHY YOUR AIR BAG DID NOT DEPLOY

There are several reasons why your air bag may not have deployed during a crash.  The first reason is that perhaps your crash is not the type of accident where air bag deployment would be helpful.  For frontal air bags, this includes many, but not all, side impacts, rear impacts and rollovers.  This category also includes minor accidents in which the driver and front passenger (if there was one) did not suffer any significant injuries requiring medical treatment.

The second reason is that there could be a defect that prevented the crash sensors from detecting the crash properly.  Our investigation and analysis of air bag systems in hundreds and hundreds of crashes has revealed numerous causes that fall within this category.  In some cases, the air bag deployment threshold is simply not set appropriately, often due to inadequate testing.  In other cases, a flaw in the software of the air bag control module has caused it to ignore the data from one of the crash sensors.  In still other cases, there are simply too few sensors to properly detect real-world crashes; this often results from overly zealous cost-reduction efforts by car companies that are trying to improve their finances.  In a few cases, quality control efforts have failed to prevent defective sensors or air bag control modules from reaching the public.

2002 Buick Century: Fatal Non-Deployment

The third reason is that there could be a defect that prevented the deployment signal from reaching the air bag modules and deploying them.  Here, the problem usually lies with the electrical components and wiring between the crash sensors, control module and the air bag modules.  The most frequent defect in this category that we see is when the driver air bag fails to deploy, but the passenger air bag does deploy.  In many cases, this is due to a defective clockspring located in the steering column.  Millions of defective clocksprings have been recalled, generally due to poor quality control at either the supplier’s production plant or the car company’s assembly plant.

Airbag Clockspring

Ford Airbag Sensor Cut Wire

The fourth reason is that there could be a defect that prevented the actual air bag modules from deploying correctly.  In a few cases, the crash sensors and air bag control modules have commanded deployment of the air bags, but the air bags failed to respond.  This is almost always due to defects within the air bag modules themselves, usually due to poor quality control.

Although each vehicle and each accident is different, I can help you determine whether the air bags in your car should have deployed in your accident.  As an air bag attorney, as a former air bag engineer for General Motors, and as a court-recognized air bag expert witness, I have over 20 years of experience in analyzing air bag system performance.  If your air bag system is defective and you have a case, I would be honored to pursue justice for you.

1. Airbag Modules: As the heart of the airbag system, airbag modules include the fabric airbag cushion or “pillow,” the inflator that generates the gas that fills the airbag, and the container that holds them.

For front airbags, the driver’s airbag is in the center of the steering wheel, and the passenger’s airbag is in the dash in front of the passenger seat. Side airbags are generally in the side of the seat or behind the plastic trim next to the seat. Newer curtain, rollover or canopy airbags are located in the edges of the roof, and deploy down along the side windows.

These modules must contain certain specific safety features to prevent the airbag from causing unnecessary head, neck, chest or other injuries.

2. Airbag Sensors and Diagnostics: The crash sensors are the “brains” of the airbag system, deciding whether and when to deploy the airbags in an automobile accident or collision.

The diagnostic portion of the airbag system is intended to diagnose certain electrical problems within the airbag circuits. These diagnostics evolved into modern “black boxes” that record crash information and go by names such as:

• ECU (Electronic Control Unit)
• SDM (Sensing and Diagnostic Module)
• RCM (Restraints Control Module)
• ORC (Occupant Restraints Controller)
• EDR (Event Data Recorder)

Sensor failures can lead to airbags not deploying during a car accident where they should have protected a consumer. They can also lead to unnecessary deployments that can cause a crash to occur, or can directly injure a consumer.

3. Clockspring: An electrical component in the steering wheel, the clockspring allows electrical current to flow through the wires in the steering column to the driver airbag module mounted in the steering wheel. When this part is defective, it can prevent the driver’s airbag from deploying, even during a high-speed wreck. Millions of these components have been recalled, often due to a poor design, lack of testing, or inadequate quality control.

4. Warning Lamps: These warning lights in your instrument cluster or on your dash should show the electrical status of your airbag system. When you start your car, the warning lamp should flash or stay on for about six seconds while the diagnostic unit checks the system. If your warning lamp comes on while you’re driving, you probably have a defect in your airbag system, which could cause the airbag system to unnecessarily deploy or can prevent deployment in a crash.

5. Passenger Airbag On-Off Switches: In some vehicles, including pickup trucks and cars without a back seat, a key-operated on/off switch is located in the dash. These are typically intended to allow a driver to shut off the passenger airbag when infants or small children do not have an adequate back seat in which to sit and must instead sit in the front seat.

6. Passenger Presence Detection and Occupant Classification Systems: Newer advanced airbags include various methods to determine the presence and size of the front passenger, in order to adjust how forcefully the airbag should deploy.

If there is no passenger, or if an infant or child becomes too close to the dash, these advanced airbags are typically intended to prevent the deployment of the airbag. If the occupant is an adult, such systems can tailor the inflation force to the person’s size or position. A failure in these systems can have deadly consequences.

7. Other Components: Other parts of your car should also be designed to work together with your airbag system during a crash, including deployment doors, trim covers, knee bolsters, steering columns, steering wheels, sun visors, windshields, seats, dash or instrument panels (I/P), and sometimes even the inside rear view mirrors.

3 Questions to Ask Before Determining if an Airbag Caused Injury or Wrongful Death

Although airbags are intended as a safety device, government documentation confirms they have caused significant trauma during vehicle accidents and are responsible for hundreds of wrongful deaths.

This shouldn’t come as a major surprise, given airbags deploy at speeds sometimes exceeding 200 mph. After experiencing an airbag deployment, many consumers say the airbag appeared to explode and compare the sound to a shotgun blast.

When questioning an airbag’s performance during a vehicle accident, you should analyze 3 critical questions before determining its role in contributing to serious injuries or wrongful death.

Question #1: Should the airbag have deployed?

Deployment depends on many factors, including your type of airbag. If it did not deploy and should have, you may have a “failure to deploy” or “non-deployment” case. In such a situation, the airbag would have deployed if the airbag crash sensor or other components had not failed.

One reason for deployment failure is a crash sensor malfunction due to faulty wiring that connects the crash sensor to the electronic control unit. Sometimes airbags don’t deploy because the car company did not conduct adequate crash tests when designing the airbag crash sensor.

In fact, many airbag systems sold to consumers were never tested in car-to-car crash tests, even though such crashes occur every day.

If the passenger airbag deployed, but the driver airbag did not deploy, the vehicle may contain a defective “clockspring” or coil. This electrical device installed in the steering column beneath the driver airbag transmits an electrical current to deploy the driver airbag. Reasons for a malfunction include design defects, inadequate testing, improper installation and improper adjustment.

In some cases, a passenger airbag will not deploy even though the driver airbag deployed and a passenger was sitting in the seat. This often occurs when a passenger presence detection sensor doesn’t work properly.

If the airbag deployed, but should not have deployed, you may have an “inadvertent” or unwarranted low-speed deployment. These can occur because of airbag sensor or other electrical defects.

Unfortunately, some manufacturers used inappropriate sensor combinations that are overly susceptible to low-speed, localized impacts, such as a vehicle striking a pothole or curb. Other sensor systems fail to detect crashes into a pole or tree. This may be the result of not having enough crash sensors due to excessive cost-cutting at the car companies.

Question #2: Did the airbag deploy late?

When an airbag opens late, impact occurs at a closer range. The extreme force can cause catastrophic injuries, even though late deployments often occur in minor accidents.

Late deployments can often be prevented using additional sensors and/or changes to the algorithms of electronic sensors. In some cases, the vehicle’s “black box” can confirm a late deployment took place.

Question #3: Did the airbag have specific crash safety features?

Crash safety features are added to airbags to reduce the risk of injury during deployment. These include items such as airbag inflators that inflate less forcefully, tethers that significantly reduce “bag slap” injuries, and vents that decrease pressure inside the airbag.

An investigation into these features is necessary to determine if manufacturing defects and quality control problems caused or contributed to your injuries.

In addition to crash safety features, the airbag system must also work together with the other parts of the car. For example, airbag crash sensors depend on the vehicle having a good structure or frame so the signal is received soon enough to avoid a late deployment.

Also, the instrument panel (I/P) or “dash” needs to be designed so that the knees and legs are not injured, while keeping the body properly positioned. And, when the airbag deploys, it must not create additional hazards for other components. For example, some passenger airbags are known to shatter the dash and send the pieces flying toward the passenger at high speeds.

You should get answers to these questions for any potentially defective front, side, curtain or rollover airbags. You deserve a safe and effective airbag during any type of a crash.