Okay, to be perfectly clear: Airbags have saved countless lives and prevented many injuries ever since they became standard in modern vehicles.
However, airbags can also be the cause of serious injuries – even when they deploy properly. When airbags are defective, they can even cause fatalities.
How can airbags cause injuries?
Typically, airbags deploy when a crash sensor on your vehicle signals the need. The bag is a lightweight fabric that inflates with nitrogen gas at an explosive speed – up to 200 mph in the blink of an eye.
While airbags can stop you from hitting your head on the dashboard or steering wheel, they can also cause significant damage to the human body. For example:
- The chemicals that cause the airbag to deploy can get into your lungs and cause breathing problems or get into your eyes and cause damage to your corneas.
- Injuries to eye sockets and the relatively fragile bones in your face can easily happen due to the force of the airbag itself, and concussions are still possible.
- Airbags deploy so fast that they can easily cause friction burns on your face, hands and arms.
- The force of the airbag’s explosion can be enough to feel like a hard punch into your chest, and that can cause damage to your breastbone or even break your ribs.
- Broken ribs and chest injuries can also lead to other, even more serious internal injuries. Your liver, heart, lungs and spleen can all be injured in a wreck.
Far too many people think that airbags make them virtually immune to injury in collisions, when the reality is very different. If you’ve been injured in a wreck, find out what it takes to get fair compensation for your losses.