The Hidden Dangers of Airbags

Are there dangers to having airbags in your vehicle? These items are created to improve the safety of your vehicle, but they are dangerous.

Since the NHTSA and IIHS required all automakers to install front and side airbags in vehicles, these items have been responsible for nearly 300 deaths during automotive collisions, along with countless injuries that were sustained by drivers and passengers. Should airbags be removed from vehicles? Are they too dangerous to be part of your driving experience? Wouldn’t you be safer without a giant bag of air coming at you at nearly 200 mph?

Some Airbags are Defective

One of the biggest automotive problems took place when the Takata airbags were found to be defective. These airbags had been used by nearly all automakers because they were affordable and plentiful, but they were also dangerous. Without a doubt, if you’re driving a vehicle with a defective item, this can be one of the dangers you find, including with the airbags that are part of the vehicle.

A few of the defects that have been found with airbags include:

• Failure to deploy
• Failure to fulling inflate or stay inflated for the necessary time
• Deployment with excessive force
• Faulty on-off switches
• Malfunctioning inflators
• Airbag sensor malfunctions
• Late airbag deployment
• Accidental airbag deployment
• Airbags that are not right for the size of the vehicle

Looking at this list, you can easily imagine how some of these situations could be extremely dangerous when you’re in an accident. You wouldn’t know if the airbag was defective until you truly need it to function and perform for you during a crash.

What Types of Injuries Have Resulted from Defective Airbags?

As you can probably imagine, having airbags that are defective can cause serious injuries that might take months or even years to recover from. Some people who have been injured as a result of defective airbags will never be whole again, which is certainly not something you expect to result from an item that’s meant to protect you during your time on the road.

Some of the injuries resulting from defective airbags include:

• Eye injuries
• Broken necks
• Head trauma
• Traumatic brain injuries
• Burns
• Scarring and disfigurement
• Hearing loss
• Blindness
• Broken limbs

Along with the injuries sustained, many victims of the dangers of airbags have reported emotional and mental trauma that comes from defective airbags in the vehicle they were riding in.

Should You Replace Your Airbags?

These secondary safety devices, airbags, use chemicals to create the instant inflation that helps to keep you safer in a crash. These chemicals have a shelf-life, and your airbags should be replaced every ten years. Unfortunately, this is something that doesn’t happen; most of us aren’t interested in spending money that we normally wouldn’t, even if it’s part of the maintenance program of the vehicle we drive. If you do replace your airbags every ten years, you’re at least ahead of the rest of those driving around on the roads, but there’s another issue with older vehicles and the airbags installed in them.

The Other Issue

Even if you replace your airbags every ten years, you’re not going to have the most recent version of the airbags in the market. This means your 20-year-old vehicle will have airbags that were created for that vehicle at that time. Modern vehicles have airbags with sensors to detect where the person is and the size of the individual. While not all airbags have these, it’s good to know that these safety devices have evolved and could give you more cushion and safety during a crash.

Some People are at a Disadvantage

Most vehicles are made to fit the average person perfectly and work for them. We don’t see crash test dummies that have large bellies, short statures, or body parts that are different from the average, but how many of us are truly of average size and weight? If you’re an extremely short or tall person, having airbags in your vehicle could put you at a disadvantage in an accident. There have been reports of these items hurting shorter people because they have to sit much closer to the steering wheel than the average person.