- August 28, 2024
- Tucker Law
- Car Accident Lawsuits
Airbags are an effective safety system that has saved countless lives since they were first invented. However, they have also become associated with serious car accidents. Typically, if an airbag deploys, people assume that someone was seriously hurt or would have been if not for the airbag. This isn’t an unreasonable belief, but it does somewhat distort people’s understanding of this valuable safety device. How do airbags work? And what does it mean for a car accident claim when one deploys?
How Airbags Protect You in a Car Accident
Airbags are similar to seat belts in function. They are designed to prevent passengers in a vehicle from flying out of the vehicle or striking a hard surface during a car accident. Older vehicles may not have airbags, but any vehicle built after September 1, 1998, is federally mandated to have front driver-side and passenger-side airbags. Cars built after that date have sensors that detect when they are involved in a collision. If the collision is strong enough, the airbags deploy.
A deployed airbag swiftly fills with air, creating a relatively soft cushion that blocks the front windshield, dash, and steering wheel. When a passenger strikes an airbag, a significant portion of their force dissipates. The airbag then deflates moments after inflating, preventing it from hindering the passenger’s ability to escape the vehicle.
Airbags deploy in serious accidents to help limit the severity of any injuries suffered by the front passengers in the car.
Does a Deployed Airbag Mean My Car Is Totaled?
While airbags can help protect you from injury in an accident, they aren’t a perfect product. The main downside of an airbag is that it is a one-time-use product. Once it has deployed, there is no way to reset the airbag. Instead, the entire airbag assembly needs to be replaced. In some cases, the steering wheel may also need to be replaced. This leads many people to believe that once an airbag has been deployed, the car can never be driven again.
While your car may be totaled after a car accident, the deployment of your airbag is only one piece of that equation. For a car to be considered totaled, the cost to repair your vehicle (including replacing the airbag) must be more than a specific value. In New York, that value is 75% of the actual value of your vehicle before it was damaged. Replacing an airbag often costs upwards of $1,000 per airbag, and when one deploys, they usually both deploy. So the cost to repair your vehicle if your airbags deploy is probably at least $3,000 before any other calculations are made. That is the main reason cars are often totaled when airbags deploy.
Were you or a loved one injured in an auto accident in New York City? Contact Tucker Lawyers at (516) 399-2364 to schedule a free consultation with an experienced personal injury attorney.
How Car Insurance Companies Deal With Airbag Deployment
New York is a no-fault driving state. That means if you are involved in a car accident, your insurance company is required to compensate you for your injuries and any damage to your car based on the policy limits of your personal injury protection and collision policies, respectively. There is no required minimum collision insurance in New York. If you don’t have it, that means if you get into an accident, the insurance company may pay you nothing to repair your vehicle. However, if you have enough collision insurance to cover the full value of your vehicle, airbag deployment just becomes another cost.
When a deployed airbag needs to be repaired after an accident, it adds a significant amount to the repair cost of your vehicle but otherwise shouldn’t affect your claim. The only way an airbag deployment might be problematic during an insurance claim is if the insurance company overvalues the cost of replacing your airbags. In that situation, it may declare your vehicle totaled, even though it shouldn’t be. A good way to avoid this potential problem is to consult with an experienced personal injury lawyer before making an insurance claim. Attorneys, like the team at Tucker Lawyers, can help you get repair evaluations from trustworthy sources that won’t inflate the cost.
What if Faulty Airbags Caused an Injury?
If faulty airbags cause an injury in a car accident, the insurance company may refuse to compensate you for those injuries. In this situation, the insurance company is arguing that you wouldn’t have been injured if the airbags weren’t faulty. That is possibly true but often hard to prove. Unfortunately, because insurance companies control the claims process, they don’t have to prove that to deny your claim. This puts the onus of appealing the decision on you.
If there is any reason to believe that the airbags were faulty, you should contact a personal injury lawyer from Tucker Lawyers as soon as possible. Our team will pursue compensation for you on two fronts. First, we will challenge the decision of the insurance company. Unless it can definitively prove that you wouldn’t have been injured if not for the faulty airbag, it is bound by contract to compensate you for your injuries. We have years of experience negotiating settlements with insurance companies, even in complicated cases like this.
Second, we will pursue a case against the manufacturer of the airbag. If it was a defective product, the manufacturer is responsible for any harm caused by the product. Our legal team will consult with experts in the field to determine what caused your injuries and whether the product was safe. The best part is we’ll do all this behind the scenes while you focus on recovering from the accident.
Contact Tucker Lawyers Today
Getting into a car or truck accident in NYC can be frightening, especially when the airbags deploy. Recovering financially usually depends on whether you have a good team supporting your car accident claim.
Are you looking for a good legal team? Look no further than Tucker Lawyers. Contact us today at (516) 399-2364 to schedule a free consultation.
Managing Attorney John. J. Tucker, Esq.
John has personally handled thousands of clients who were victims of another’s negligence and fights relentlessly for their rights. John enjoys bringing closure to a client’s matter so that the injured party can move forward with their life. His background enables him to evaluate complex liability related claims and bring resolution to claims in a record time frame. [ Attorney Bio ]