When we investigate an airbag non-deployment accident for a client, our first priority is to look at the vehicle’s delta v (change in velocity) along with the angle of the wreck. Our Lake Jackson accident attorneys work in conjunction with specialized accident re-construction experts to determine the technical aspects governing your Lake Jackson, TX collision.
Cars manufactured prior to 2000 use broader criteria for triggering airbag deployment than later cars. In those older cars, the airbag might deploy if the delta v is greater than 14 mph, and the wreck is either a head-on collision, or 30 degrees to left or right of center.
But later cars usually employ higher delta v requirements. They also will suppress airbag deployment under certain circumstances. These circumstances might include seat belt use, pretensioner deployment, or the severity of the accident.
Different manufacturers employ differing airbag deployment criteria within their various vehicle models. Unfortunately, specific information regarding the criteria used for your specific vehicle probably isn’t available to the public. Your Lake Jackson accident attorney might have to obtain details on your car’s airbag deployment triggers through the pre-trial “discovery” process.
After your Lake Jackson accident, you’ll need to leave your vehicle unrepaired until your attorney’s technical experts can conduct a thorough inspection to determine precisely why your airbag did not deploy. Depending upon what the experts find, you may need to leave your vehicle unrepaired for a while. The condition of the car itself may be helpful evidence in your injury compensation claim.
In any claim, your opposition likely will produce experts of their own to testify that the car’s speed, angle, and braking activity before the accident remained below the threshold required to trigger airbag deployment. (And this remains true whatever your speed, angle, and braking activity was.) The opposition might pin their case on your BEV (barrier equivalent velocity), which is different than delta v, the usual airbag trigger.
To win your airbag defect claim, you will need to prove that: · The airbag non-deployment caused your injuries; · If the airbag had deployed, it would have prevented your injuries; · Deployment of the airbag would not have caused greater injuries than the ones you have; · The sensor system designed to trigger your airbag had a defect; · An alternative sensor system design existed that would have deployed the airbag; and · The alternative design would not have deployed the airbag unnecessarily.
You’ll need the help of the biomechanics, medical and sensor diagnostic system experts that your Lake Jackson accident attorney can find. Proving an airbag defect case is highly technical and complex. It involves the conjunction of mechanical and medical intricacies that only a Lake Jackson accident attorney with years of complex accident litigation experience can unravel and present clearly to a jury.
Call us for a free consultation regarding your airbag defect case. At Denena & Points, we’ve been obtaining successful results for our clients in such complicated, technical accident claims for more than a decade. Experience counts. Call us.