Airbag Injuries: Are Victims Hurt by Reduced Quality?

January 31, 2014, 3:30PM. By Heidi Turner

Seattle, WAWhen consumers purchase vehicles, they often take into consideration issues such as airbags and whether the vehicle in question has side impact airbags and other safety features. What they do not consider - or often know - is who the maker of these safety features is and what the risks of airbag injuries are.

Airbags - drivers’ side airbags, curtain airbags and the like - are often taken as a given in vehicles. Automobile manufacturers tout the number of airbags as an important safety feature. But many consumers do not realize there is a risk to the airbags not working properly. When they work properly, airbags can save lives. When they do not work properly, they can be deadly.

Among the issues with some airbags are airbags that do not deploy in an accident, putting vehicle occupants at risk of serious head injuries if their heads collide with certain parts of the vehicle; airbags that deploy too late - even a split second delay in deploying can mean the difference between life and death or serious injury; airbags that deploy unnecessarily, putting the driver at risk of causing an accident or resulting injury; or airbags that deploy improperly, sending projectiles into the cabin of the vehicle and causing further harm to those in the cabin.

Although there are many things that can go wrong with an airbag, and even though airbags are highly touted as important safety features in a vehicle, consumers tend to know very little about who manufactures the airbags, where they come from or what the chances of a problem are.

A special report by Reuters (1/13/14) shines some light on the manufacturing process. The report focuses on Takata, a company that manufactures airbags and the technology that runs the airbags. Takata is, according to Reuters, one of the top three airbag manufacturers in the world.

Thanks to advancements in airbag technology, airbags may be at greater risk now of an issue than they were in the past. That is because there are so many things that can go wrong. Sensors can misread the force of a collision, for example, or the inflation device could malfunction, delaying inflation. These sorts of issues can lead to cars being recalled.

In the case of Takata airbags, according to Reuters, the company has acknowledged that chemicals were not properly stored, and propellants used to inflate airbags were not properly made, resulting in lower quality airbags.

Among recalls attributed to Takata airbags was a 2013 recall of Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Mazda vehicles, announced due to concerns about metal fragments being propelled into vehicle cabins and linked to the 2009 death of a woman in Florida, according to Safety Research & Strategies (4/17/13). In all more than 3.5 million vehicles were recalled.