The safety features in your vehicle are supposed to protect you, not cause more harm. When an airbag fails and aggravates your injuries, you have rights against the powerful companies that made it. If a defective airbag made your car crash injuries worse, you’re dealing with a different kind of claim.
A product liability lawyer can help you sort out the claims process and seek compensation for your injuries after a faulty airbag.
Schedule A Free Case Consultation
Who Is Responsible When an Airbag Fails?

After a crash, it's natural to focus on the other driver, but a faulty airbag can make your injuries worse and complicate the legal process. Responsibility often extends far beyond the drivers involved in the collision.
The companies that design, build, and sell vehicles and their parts have a duty to provide safe products. A failure to meet this duty is called product liability. This means a car manufacturer or a parts maker is accountable if its defective product hurts someone.
In these situations, several parties may be at fault, including:
- The Car Manufacturer: The automaker is responsible for the final product. They select the parts and assemble the car. They have the final say on the safety systems installed in their vehicles.
- The Airbag Manufacturer: The company that specifically designed and built the airbag system has direct responsibility. A flaw in their design or a mistake during production makes them liable.
- A Third-Party Company: Sometimes other companies are involved, like a testing facility that approved a dangerous design or a maintenance shop that installed a replacement airbag incorrectly.
Identifying the responsible party requires a deep dive into the vehicle’s history and the airbag's design. Your claim might involve one or all of these entities, and your lawyer will investigate them all.
How Airbag Failures Happen
Airbags are meant to cushion you during a collision. When they’re defective, they become a source of injury themselves. A faulty airbag often leaves behind very specific and severe physical harm. These devices deploy with incredible force. Any error in their function turns that force against you.
A defective airbag can fail in several ways, each one dangerous.
- Late Deployment: The airbag deploys too late, after your body has already moved forward. You hit the steering wheel or dashboard before the airbag inflates, and then the bag hits you with full force. This causes severe head, neck, and chest injuries.
- Over-Inflation: The airbag inflates with too much pressure, like being punched by a concrete block. This may lead to broken facial bones, brain injuries, and damage to your eyes or ears.
- Explosion: Instead of inflating, the airbag’s metal housing shatters. It sprays metal fragments, or shrapnel, throughout the car cabin like a bomb. These flying pieces of metal cause deep cuts, punctured organs, and even death. Many Takata airbag claims involved this exact failure. A defective airbag worsens car crash injuries when it acts like a weapon.
- Failure To Deploy: Sometimes, the most dangerous airbag is the one that does nothing at all. You get no protection in the crash. Your injuries are far more severe than they would have been if the airbag had worked correctly.
Injuries from these failures are distinct from typical car wreck injuries. They include chemical burns on your skin from the gases used to inflate the bag, severe eye trauma leading to blindness, and unique patterns of bruising on the chest and face.
Potential Compensation After a Defective Airbag Made Your Injuries Worse
Calculating the value of a claim where a defective airbag made your car crash injuries worse involves looking at every area of your life that the injury has affected. It goes beyond the immediate medical bills from the accident.
You may be looking at a lifetime of potential consequences from the airbag’s failure. A personal injury claim accounts for your current and future losses, known as damages. They’re split into different categories that reflect your total harm.
Economic damages are the straightforward financial losses you've suffered. They include every bill and every lost paycheck tied to your worsened injuries. Non-economic damages cover the losses that don't have a simple price tag. These damages address the human cost of the injury.
Here are some examples of common damages:
- Past and Future Medical Care: This covers everything from your initial hospital stay to any future surgeries, physical therapy, medication, and assistive devices you'll need.
- Lost Income and Earning Capacity: This category includes the wages you lost while out of work recovering. It also accounts for any permanent disability that prevents you from earning the same income you did before the injury.
- Other Out-of-Pocket Costs: Any other expense you have because of the injury, like transportation to medical appointments, falls into this category.
- Pain and Suffering: This is compensation for your physical pain and emotional distress.
- Loss of Enjoyment of Life: An injury may stop you from participating in hobbies, activities, and relationships that once brought you joy.
- Disfigurement and Scarring: This addresses the psychological impact of permanent scars, especially on the face or hands, caused by airbag burns or shrapnel.
These claims are complex. They require a full understanding of your medical condition and how it will affect your life for years to come. Your story is more than just a car crash; it’s about how a product’s failure changed your life’s path.
5 Steps To Take After an Injury From a Malfunctioning Airbag
What you do after the crash matters. Preserving evidence is the foundation of a successful product liability claim. Your actions protect your ability to hold a manufacturer accountable.
- Preserve the Vehicle: Don’t let anyone repair the car. Don’t let the insurance company take it to a salvage yard. The vehicle and the faulty airbag system are the most important pieces of evidence. Your legal team will need to have them inspected by an engineer to determine why the airbag failed.
- Document Your Injuries: Keep a detailed journal of your physical symptoms, pain levels, and medical treatments. Take photos of your injuries as they heal. This documentation creates a clear timeline that connects your harm to the defective airbag.
- Gather All Documents: Collect every piece of paper related to the accident and your vehicle. This includes the police report and medical records. Get a copy of your car’s purchase agreement if you have it.
- Don’t Give a Recorded Statement: The car manufacturer's insurance company or legal team may contact you. They'll ask to record a statement about the accident. You’re not obligated to speak with them. Their job is to find reasons to deny your claim or pay you less. Politely decline and direct them to your attorney.
- Contact a Product Liability Lawyer: These cases are very different from a standard car accident claim. A personal injury lawyer with experience in defective product cases understands how to fight large corporations. They know how to prove that a faulty airbag made your car crash injuries worse.
How a Lawyer Helps With a Claim Involving a Defective Airbag
A lawyer becomes your advocate, investigator, and negotiator, leveling the playing field between you and a powerful corporation. They handle the complex legal battle so you can focus on your recovery.
Investigating the Airbag’s Failure
Lawyers work with automotive and engineering professionals to analyze the airbag system in your vehicle. They determine the exact mode of failure, whether it was a design flaw, a manufacturing defect, or an issue with the chemical propellant.
This technical investigation is the core of proving your claim that a defective airbag made your car crash injuries worse.
Connecting the Defect to Your Injuries
Proving the airbag was defective is only half the battle. Your attorney then uses medical records and expert medical testimony to draw a direct line between that failure and your specific injuries.
For instance, they show how shrapnel from an airbag explosion caused a particular wound or how a late deployment led to a traumatic brain injury.
Identifying All Liable Parties
A skilled lawyer traces the supply chain to find every company with a hand in the defective product. This might include the automaker, a parts supplier, and a design firm. Holding every responsible party accountable maximizes your chance of a fair outcome for your claim.
Managing Communications
Automakers and large manufacturers have teams of lawyers dedicated to minimizing their liability. Your attorney handles all communication with these powerful legal teams. They protect you from tactics designed to get you to settle for less than your case is worth.
Building Your Case for Full Compensation
Your lawyer meticulously documents all your damages. They gather medical bills, employment records, and expert reports to calculate your injuries' full, long-term cost.
Your attorney will present this evidence in a powerful demand to the responsible companies and can take your fight to court if the companies refuse to be fair.
FAQ for What if a Defective Airbag Made Your Car Crash Injuries Worse?
What Are the Signs of a Defective Airbag?
The most obvious sign is an injury that seems out of place for the type of crash you had. This includes shrapnel wounds, chemical burns on your face or chest, or severe eye injuries.
Other signs are the airbag light on your dashboard before the crash, the airbag deploying in a minor fender-bender, or not deploying at all in a serious collision.
Do I Still Have a Case if the Crash Was My Fault?
Yes, you may still have a valid claim. Product liability is separate from the cause of the initial accident. Even if your mistake led to the crash, the vehicle's safety equipment is expected to perform correctly.
If the faulty airbag worsened your injuries, the manufacturer is responsible for that extra harm. Don’t assume you don’t have a case if you were at fault.
How Long Do I Have To File a Claim for a Faulty Airbag Injury?
Every state has a time limit, called a statute of limitations, for filing a product liability lawsuit. This deadline varies by state and may be as short as one year from the date of your injury.
For example, Massachusetts generally allows three years to file a claim, but Pennsylvania and Florida only allow two years. If you miss your deadline, you lose your right to sue. Contact a lawyer immediately to protect your claim.
What if My Car Was Recalled for a Defective Airbag and I Didn’t Know?
You may still have a case if the airbag was recalled, but you missed it. A manufacturer's duty to warn consumers must be effective. They may still be held liable if they sent the recall notice to an old address or failed to make a reasonable effort to contact you.
The fact that a recall existed doesn’t automatically excuse them from responsibility when their faulty airbag worsened your injuries.
How Do I Prove a Defective Airbag Made My Car Crash Injuries Worse?
Proving this requires a two-part investigation by your attorney. First, an engineering expert examines the airbag and the vehicle to establish that the airbag was defective and failed to perform as designed.
Second, a medical expert reviews your medical records to offer a professional opinion that your injuries were caused or worsened by the airbag's specific failure, not just the crash itself.
Reclaim Your Security
Justice isn't about looking back at what happened; it’s about taking control of your path forward. A product meant to protect you failed, leaving you with the consequences. Let a dedicated legal team handle the fight for you.
Contact the Oakes Firm at (267) 310-0656 for a free consultation in Philadelphia, Miami, or Boston. We're here to help you move forward.