What Types of Injuries Are Caused by Airbags?

Airbags deploy with incredible force, and while they are credited with saving tens of thousands of lives, they are also the direct cause of significant injuries. These injuries commonly include facial fractures, severe burns from the chemicals used for inflation, and chest trauma from the impact, and a Tampa car accident lawyer can help you pursue compensation if you were hurt in such a crash.

In some cases, particularly involving defective airbags like those in the massive Takata recall, deployment sends metal shrapnel into the vehicle, causing catastrophic or fatal wounds. 

If a faulty airbag harmed you or a loved one, you may have a right to pursue compensation from the manufacturer.

Call us at (813) 445-8161. The team at Boohoff Law, P.A. is here to help.

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Key Takeaways for Airbag Injuries in Florida

1. Airbags save lives but they can also cause serious harm. Injuries include facial fractures, burns, internal trauma, and in defective cases like Takata airbags, even fatal shrapnel wounds. Deployment force and chemical burns are common even when airbags function properly.
2. You may have a product liability claim if the airbag was defective. If your injury was caused by an airbag that deployed too late, too aggressively, or exploded, you can seek compensation from the manufacturer without proving negligence.
3. Preserve the vehicle and speak to a lawyer before it’s repaired. The airbag system must be inspected to determine if a defect caused your injury. If the vehicle is altered or destroyed, vital evidence may be lost.

The Force of “Safety”: Common Injuries from Airbag Deployment

You were in a crash, and the device meant to protect you may have been the very thing that caused your most serious injury. The sudden, violent inflation of an airbag is jarring and leaves you with unexpected pain and questions about what happened, and this is where having a lawyer for a car accident can make a difference in helping you understand your options and pursue compensation.

The injuries from an airbag are distinct and severe.

• Facial Trauma and Eye Injuries: Your head and face are directly in the airbag’s deployment path. The force is strong enough to fracture your nose, cheekbones, or jaw. The rapid expansion also causes serious eye injuries, including corneal abrasions, hyphemas (bleeding in the eye), or even retinal detachment.
• Burns and Abrasions: Airbags inflate using a chemical reaction that produces hot nitrogen gas. This heat, combined with the friction of the bag against your skin, causes first or second-degree burns, particularly on your face, arms, and chest. The chemicals themselves, such as sodium hydroxide, also cause chemical burns upon contact with your skin.
• Chest, Neck, and Spinal Injuries: The impact of the airbag against your chest feels like a powerful punch, leading to fractured ribs, a bruised sternum, or internal injuries to the heart and lungs. The force also violently snaps your head back, causing whiplash or other serious neck and spinal trauma.
• Internal Injuries: The blunt force of a deploying airbag exerts extreme pressure on your abdomen, potentially causing lacerations or bruising to internal organs like the spleen, liver, or lungs.
• Shrapnel Wounds from Defective Airbags: In the most dangerous cases, a defective inflator explodes, spraying metal fragments throughout the car. These injuries are compared to gunshot or stab wounds and have been linked to numerous deaths and severe trauma. The U.S. has seen at least 28 confirmed deaths and hundreds of injuries from this specific defect.

If you suspect the airbag, not the crash, was the primary cause of your harm, understand that you may have a product liability claim. This is a legal concept that allows you to seek compensation from the manufacturer for a defective product.

Did the Airbag Work Correctly? Identifying a Potential Malfunction

Do you have a nagging feeling that the airbag in your accident didn’t perform as it should have? That feeling is worth exploring, as millions of vehicles have been recalled for dangerous airbag defects, and you may have grounds to sue after a car accident if a defective airbag caused your injuries.

An airbag malfunction isn’t always obvious. A defect presents in several ways, each posing a unique danger.

• Failure to Deploy: Sometimes the most dangerous airbag is the one that doesn’t deploy at all, leaving you unprotected in a serious collision. This is caused by faulty sensors, defective wiring, or other internal failures.
• Unexpected or Late Deployment: An airbag might deploy without a crash, perhaps from hitting a pothole, causing a driver to lose control. It could also deploy a fraction of a second too late, meeting your body as it’s already moving forward and increasing the force of impact.
• Overly Aggressive Deployment: The force of deployment is precisely calculated. However, some airbags deploy with too much force, causing injuries that are far more severe than what would be expected from the crash itself.
• Exploding Inflators (The Takata Issue): The most well-known defect involves inflators, particularly from manufacturer Takata, that rupture upon deployment. Long-term exposure to heat and humidity—a significant factor here in Florida—destabilizes the chemical propellant, causing the metal canister to explode.

Proving that one of these malfunctions occurred requires a detailed investigation into the vehicle’s history, the airbag’s components, and the specifics of the accident. Having a clear answer about whether the device was faulty provides a path toward holding the manufacturer accountable for the harm you’ve suffered.

Do not let the insurance company take the car to be repaired or scrapped before it is inspected. Contacting a law firm that handles product liability cases ensures this evidence is preserved and analyzed correctly, which can be critical if you need to pursue a car accident lawsuit.

Who Is Held Responsible for an Airbag Injury in Florida?

In Florida, the law provides a way to hold companies responsible for unsafe products through what is known as “product liability.” This means you may be able to file a claim against several different parties.

• The Vehicle Manufacturer: The car company is ultimately responsible for the safety of the final product they sell. If they designed the car with a faulty airbag system or failed to issue a timely recall for a known defect, they are held liable.
• The Airbag Manufacturer: Companies like Takata that produce the airbag components are held directly responsible if their product was defectively designed or manufactured. Under Florida’s strict liability laws, you don’t have to prove the manufacturer was careless—only that their product was defective and caused your injury.
• A Repair Shop or Dealership: In some situations, a mechanic or dealership could be at fault. This might happen if they improperly installed a replacement airbag or used a counterfeit part that failed to perform safely.

Simply put, a product liability claim argues that a product you used was unreasonably dangerous. There are three main types of defects that support such a claim:

1. Design Defect: The airbag’s design was inherently unsafe from the beginning, affecting an entire product line (e.g., the choice of chemical propellant in Takata airbags).
2. Manufacturing Defect: A mistake during the production process made your specific airbag unsafe, even if the overall design was sound.
3. Failure to Warn: The manufacturer knew about a potential danger but failed to provide adequate warnings or instructions to consumers.

Our team has years of experience investigating these claims to identify every party that may bear responsibility for your injuries.

What Does a Claim for an Airbag Injury Involve?

Here are the general steps we take on your behalf:

• Investigating the Incident: Our first priority is to preserve the vehicle so it is inspected by automotive and engineering professionals. We gather police reports, witness statements, and medical records to build a complete picture of what happened.
• Identifying the Defect: We work with specialists to analyze the airbag’s components, sensors, and deployment data to pinpoint the failure. This technical evidence is the foundation of a product liability claim.
• Calculating Your Damages: We meticulously document all of your losses. This includes not just your current medical bills and lost wages, but also future medical needs, diminished earning capacity, and the pain and suffering you’ve endured.
• Pursuing Your Claim: We handle all communications and negotiations with the manufacturers’ legal teams and their insurance companies. While many cases are resolved through a settlement, we prepare every case as if it will go to trial to ensure we are negotiating from a position of strength.

In Florida, you generally have a limited time to file a product liability lawsuit, so you must act. According to Florida Statutes § 95.11, the time limit is now two years from the date of the injury. 

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How Do Airbag Injuries Interact with Other Types of Claims?

If you’re dealing with an airbag injury, there’s a good chance it’s not the only legal or insurance issue you’re facing. Between auto insurance, health coverage, and possibly workers’ comp, you’re now in a multi-claim situation. Each one follows a different set of rules, and they don’t always play nicely together, which is why having a car accident lawyer help me handle these overlapping claims can make the process less overwhelming.

What if Workers’ Comp Is Involved?

If the crash happened while you were driving for work—delivering packages, heading to a job site, or even running an errand for your boss—you might be covered by workers’ compensation. This is a no-fault system, which means you don’t have to prove your employer did anything wrong. But it also means you don’t get pain and suffering damages.

If you pursue a product liability claim against the airbag manufacturer, workers’ comp will expect to be reimbursed for what they paid out. This is called a subrogation lien. Florida law allows your employer’s insurer to claim back part of your settlement or verdict, but not all of it. We make sure that amount is negotiated properly, so you aren’t left with less than what’s fair.

Will My Health Insurance Be Reimbursed Too?

Yes, most likely. Health insurance works under the same principle. If your plan covered your ER visit, surgery, or rehab, it has the right to seek repayment once you recover compensation from a third party, like the airbag manufacturer. This also applies to Medicaid and Medicare, which have their own rules and strict timelines.

You won’t have to handle that paperwork yourself. We identify all liens early and work to reduce them as much as possible. These negotiations affect how much money you keep after your case resolves.

What About the At-Fault Driver’s Insurance?

Even though your injuries came from the airbag, the crash still matters. You may have a separate claim against the other driver for causing the accident. That claim would cover things like property damage and additional medical costs.

But here’s the catch: the at-fault driver’s policy won’t cover the injuries caused by a defective airbag. That’s why these cases usually involve two separate claims—one for the crash, one for the product defect.

Each claim has different legal standards, insurance carriers, and negotiation strategies. Our job is to keep them straight, time them correctly, and coordinate everything so nothing gets missed. The goal is to make sure one claim doesn’t undercut the other, which can directly affect the outcome of your car accident settlement.

Let Us Uncover the Truth Behind Your Injury

You are focused on recovery; let us focus on accountability. We regularly help families in Tampa and the surrounding communities hold manufacturers responsible. 

If you’re ready to learn more, we’re here to listen. Call Boohoff Law, P.A. today at (813) 445-8161.

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