Separately, your vehicle’s sun visors and airbags might seem harmless. But the combination of deploying airbags and in-use sun visors can have dangerous consequences, including possible blindness.

Here’s an actual incident that explains why:

A young man was driving a 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse in a rural area. Because of the setting sun, his passenger had her sun visor down to shield her eyes.

As the car turned slowly into a Little League parking lot, its left front wheel struck a small post in the center of the driveway that was obscured by dust kicked up by other cars. Despite the low speed and the lack of any damage to the front bumper or front end, the airbags deployed.

As the passenger airbag deployed, it slammed into the passenger’s sun visor (sun shade), smashing it apart and sending pieces flying. As a result, our client was hit in the face and blinded in one eye.

The force from the deploying airbag was so strong it ripped a jagged metal insert from inside the sun visor through the visor’s plastic shell. The force was also strong enough to shatter the vanity mirror that was part of the sun visor.

What Our Airbag Tests Revealed

During our 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse testing at an independent airbag test facility, we used real-time video cameras and sophisticated high-speed cameras. This testing video allowed us to capture the passenger airbag/sun visor interaction and clearly document how an airbag rips the sun visor off its attachments.

In every one of our tests, the passenger airbag smashed into the sun visor, ripped it off its attachments, and sent pieces flying through the cabin of the car, where it could pose a danger to the passengers.

Although this accident and our testing involved a 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse, other cars present similar risks. For example, our investigation revealed the following vehicles sold in the United States all use the same or substantially similar passenger airbags and passenger sun visors as the ones we tested:

• 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 Mitsubishi Eclipse
• 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder
• 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 Dodge Stratus
• 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 Chrysler Sebring

Although other cars may use different airbags or different sun visors, you aren’t necessarily free from danger. For example, some vehicles may also have a passenger airbag that deploys upward, along the windshield, and that can strike a sun visor that is being used. At the same time, some other vehicles may have sun visors that are not specifically designed to stay together after being hit by an airbag.