Recently a jury in Lackawanna County Pennsylvania awarded a couple $5.9 Million related to a defective airbag in the couples’ 2005 Mercury Sable. The couple filed the defective airbag lawsuit following a 2010 near head on collision. The Sable’s airbag failed to deploy upon impact. The driver (husband) herniated a disc and suffered lower-extremity paralysis. Attorneys for the couple presented evidence that there was a design defect in the Sable’s airbag system, specifically that there was a defect in the mounting system for the front crash sensor, which resulted in the side airbags failing to deploy upon impact. The jury awarded the 87 year-old driver $3 million for pain and suffering plus approximately $1.4 million in medical expenses. The jury also awarded his wife $1.5 million of her loss of consortium claim.
There are many reasons why an airbag may fail to deploy in an accident, not all would be a basis for a defective airbag lawsuit. Today’s vehicles all have on-board computers which determine when to deploy the airbag and when not to deploy the airbag. According the NHTSA vehicle speed and damage are not usually good indicators as to whether the airbag should deploy. Additionally, a design defect may not only result in the airbag failing to deploy, but as with certain Jeep models, sudden deployment without a collision.
If you are in a collision and your airbag fails to deploy, you should investigate whether it failed to deploy due to a design defect.
