If the driver's airbag fails to inflate during a head-on impact, is there any come-back against the car maker?

Question

My friend was involved in a head-on crash at 70mph and hit her head and face on the steering wheel and was taken to hospital though luckily she was not seriously injured. Had the air-bag inflated this might have been avoided. The car is an Audi, only about a year old and still under warranty. Does she or her employer (it's a company car) have any redress against the car manufacturer?

Answer 1

Did she have her seat belt on? I think a lot of airbags work with the seat belt tensioners, though I do not know specifically about the Audi

Answer 2

The airbags are controlled by a number of sensors in various locations around the car. The sensor locations are designed to trigger the airbags in certain types of impacts while avoiding unnecessary deployment. For example, a front air bag would not be set off by a rear end collision. Could be that the impact she experienced was at such an angle that the sensors were not triggered. You should be able to do a little research in the owner's manual or online and find out the exact location of the sensors. That may help you decide whether the bags failed to deploy due to a malfunction or if they were simply not triggered to deploy. Good luck

Answer 3

I'd start by having someone go to the Audi website to see if there are any service notices about this model and the airbag - it's possible that someone at the company got a notice about the recall (aka service notice - it doesn't sound as bad) but didn't make sure it was taken care of. That right there is the person to blame, and if they work for the company, then the company needs to be held accountable.

As far as the car itself - if there was no service notice, then yes, your friend and her employer definately has reason to go after Audi - there is no reason for the airbag to not deploy, with one exception: weight sensors.

My wifes mini-van will not enable the passenger side airbag unless there is a certain amount of weight in the seat - I think it's about 80 pounds. I don't think it's an option in the driver side of the car, at least not for our mini-van - it may be different for the Audi's.

Good luck, and hope your friend is ok!

Answer 4

I'm not personally keen on suing. If your friend has medical bills that aren't covered - she could have her vehicle inspected by a certified mechanic who can check for faults in the system.

Hopefully she doesn't have one of those models that allow the operator to temporarily disable the bag (usually only passenger side), and hadn't done so on this trip.

There is a "black box" recorder, not to be confused with the regular engine computer. It will have the data about crash. I believe it stores this info based on the crash sensor activity, whether or not there is sufficient signal to inflate one. It will show what the car was doing and being told to do in the fianl seconds before the crash. (Within the limits of the cars sensor of course. Gas pedal position, brake pedal depressing, wheel speed and so on.)

It may be possible that this particular crash did not warrant the airbags to deploy? (In other words, there is no case.)

Answer 5

the other guy was some what right. All air bags work with the seat belt sensor. If the seat belt is not latched it will not deploy. This is so people do not suffocate in the air bag. So if she was not wearing her seat belt then it would not deploy. If she was wearing it then it just did not hit the sensor for the air bag. Which most or not where people think they are. Most people think they are in the bumper wrong most or under the hood behind the engine. So it take a serious impact to set it off

Answer 6

Airbags are now designed to go off only if it is a serious life threatening accident. I struck a Camery dead-on at 65mph and the airbags did not go off. The car took the impact, had more been needed, the airbags would have gone off to protect me further.