The driver of another vehicle in an oncoming lane veered into our client’s lane, causing a head-on frontal crash. Although the crash was severe, the driver airbag did not deploy, and the driver suffered lung, heart and other chest injuries that proved fatal.

2000 Ford Taurus Airbag Failed to Deploy

 A download of the vehicle’s Restraint Control Module (the “black box”) documented the failure of the front crash sensor during the crash. My inspection of that crash sensor revealed that its wiring had been cut.  This had occurred early in the crash, right near where the crash sensor was mounted.

Airbag Sensor Cut Wire

Evidence gathered during our investigation indicated that the air bag system was programmed in a way that “shut off” the airbag if the sensor wire were cut during an accident.  In my opinion, this should never have happened.  First of all, a front airbag crash sensor should be mounted in a way that protects its wiring from being cut during a crash, since it is certainly foreseeable that the front crush zone of a car will be damaged during a frontal crash.  Second, even if the wiring gets cuts, there is no reason to shut off the entire airbag system.  Instead, the airbag control module that contains an accelerometer should still continue to function; if the airbag safety sensor within the control module detects the crash, it can still deploy the airbags.  Why deprive the consumer of the safety benefit of the airbags?

Although this was apparently fixed in later models, this particular vehicle had not been recalled to correct this problem.  There is absolutely no excuse for such a decision.  If you have a known problem, just fix it.  Why wait until more people suffer serious personal injuries or death before correcting this safety defect?