What You Need to Know: Four Important Airbag Facts
Learning about airbags can help you feel more confident about the safety of your vehicle. Important facts about these safety tools include:
Airbags Save Lives
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), air bags have helped to save over 50,000 lives over three decades. The NHTSA only counted lives saved by front airbags when compiling these statistics about this safety feature.
Airbags Deploy Very Quickly
Driver airbags can deploy at around 200 miles per hour from the steering wheel. The same speed holds true for passenger airbags. When the bag’s inflation module triggers, it causes a chemical reaction that works fast to provide maximum protection in the event of an accident.
Generally, airbags use nitrogen gas to inflate after crash sensors transmit a signal to the software requirements specification (SRS) computer.
The Government Requires the Usage of Front Airbags
The federal government has required all vehicles to include airbags since 1999. You can learn more about the specific airbags used in your car by reviewing the vehicle owner’s manual.
Note that the government does not require side airbags, but most vehicle manufacturers include them anyway.
Airbags May Cause Injuries When They Deploy
The speed and force associated with an airbag deploying can result in injuries in some cases. However, airbag-related injuries are still generally less severe than those you’d sustain in a crash without these important protective devices.
You can learn more about these four important airbag facts and what you need to know with a dedicated lawyer.
How Do Airbags Work?
For specificity’s sake, the accelerometer (located in the hood of a car) will trigger when an external force — usually another car — triggers the vehicle to come to a sudden halt. It analyzes whether the external force and the car’s deceleration are akin to hitting a brick wall. If it is, it transmits a signal to the SRS computer.
When the SRS computer receives the accelerometer’s message, it then inflates the airbags with nitrogen gas to protect car passengers from injury. The airbag deployment speed is 200 miles per hour at most, according to the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
Basically, in the event of a car accident, the car’s crash sensors (accelerometers) communicate that a crash has occurred to the software requirements specification (SRS) computer, which then sends the signal to deploy the airbags.
(310) 526-8383What You Should Know About Sustaining Airbag Injuries
Though airbags are designed to mitigate the likelihood of sustaining an injury, in rare cases, they themselves may even cause the injury. Injuries are more likely if:
Motorists Are Not Wearing Seatbelts at the Time of the Crash
As mentioned above, airbags deploy at speeds up to 200 miles per hour. Riding a car without a seat belt could cause you to come into contact with your car’s rapidly deploying airbag.
Instead of serving as a cushion for you and the car’s surface area, it could work against you. It could injure — or worse — kill you.
Airbags are still effective in shielding you from harm’s way. However, airbags alone may not have the power to save you in an accident. You also need to make sure that you’re wearing your seat belt to ensure your safety.
The Airbag Has a Dangerous Defect
The NHTSA sheds light on the recall placed on millions of Takata airbags as they have been found to be defective. The issue with them is that they could harm the lives of the drivers and passengers of these vehicles, as they don’t respond well to extreme heat and humidity.
If professionals do not replace these airbags, they could explode, injuring the people in these vehicles. A repair shop can easily replace defective airbags.
Talk to Us to Learn More About Automobile Airbag Safety
You can learn more about four important airbag facts and what you need to know about these safety devices from our team at Omega Law Group Accident & Injury Attorneys. We know that airbags minimize the likelihood of injury, but the fact of the matter is that they could never eliminate the risk.
You can do all the right things, drive a car with fully functional airbags and wear a seatbelt on top of that, and you could still be injured. When this happens, remember that you still have another tool at your disposal should you decide to pursue justice and restitution: Our legal team.
Our Los Angeles personal injury attorneys know what it takes to help injury victims get the compensation they need after a crash.
Our team believes in providing you with personalized one-on-one care to help you fight the injustices that you were subjected to in an accident. Reach out now to learn more.
