Airbags are a crucial safety feature designed to protect drivers and passengers during car accidents, but they can also cause injuries when they deploy. Many victims experience burns, fractures, or lasting medical complications as a result. If you’ve been injured by an airbag in Indiana, understanding the types of injuries and your legal options is essential. Consulting an Indianapolis car accident lawyer can help protect your recovery and ensure you receive full compensation.
Common Types of Airbag Injuries
Airbags save lives, but their force can also leave a range of injuries that affect different parts of the body. Here are some of the most common types:
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Facial and Eye Injuries
When an airbag deploys, the force and the chemicals inside can lead to several types of facial and eye injuries. It’s common for crash victims to experience burns and bruising on the face because airbags open suddenly and with powerful energy. Sometimes bones around the eye, known as the orbital bones, can break.
Airbags can also cause the skin or surface of the eye to get scratched, which often results in painful redness and vision changes. In more severe accidents, the trauma can even lead to a detached retina, a medical emergency that can lead to lasting vision loss without fast treatment.
Head and Brain Injuries
The sudden impact and movement involved in car accidents, combined with how quickly airbags deploy, can leave victims with significant head and brain injuries. A concussion is a common outcome, caused by the jolt or direct contact with the airbag. Symptoms can be serious and long-lasting, such as headaches, confusion, memory loss, and sensitivity to light.
Chest and Rib Injuries
Chest and rib injuries are frequent when an airbag hits the front of a driver or passenger during a crash. The chest takes a lot of the airbag’s direct impact. Many people fracture their sternum, also called the breastbone. The sudden compression or blow can also harm internal organs, particularly the heart or lungs, leading to breathing trouble, chest pain, or dangerous complications that require emergency medical care.
Arm, Wrist, and Shoulder Injuries
Many people instinctively put their hands and arms up as they’re about to crash, which can place the upper limbs at direct risk from an exploding airbag. This position often leads to fractured bones or dislocations in the arms, wrists, hands, or shoulders.
Chemical Burns from Airbag Dust
Inside each airbag, special chemicals react at the moment of a crash to create the gas that makes the airbag inflate rapidly. Some of these substances, like sodium hydroxide, can cause skin burns or serious irritation if you come in direct contact with them. The powdery residue released when an airbag deploys may also irritate eyes or airways, leading some victims to experience coughing, skin rashes, or stinging in the nose and throat.
Hearing Damage
Another injury that victims don’t always expect is damage to their hearing. When an airbag deploys, the sound can be incredibly loud, and may cause hearing loss – usually temporarily. but not always. Some people develop a ringing or buzzing sensation, known as tinnitus, almost immediately. Sometimes these ear problems disappear in days, but in other cases, loud airbag deployment can lead to longer-term or even permanent hearing issues.
Airbags likely do more good than they do harm, but there can still be significant injuries in some cases.
Why Airbag Injuries Happen
Different problems can lead to airbag injuries, even when the airbag is working as designed or when it malfunctions. Here’s how this can occur:
Proper Deployment That Still Causes Harm
High-speed crashes lead to airbag deployment, and even when they work properly, they deploy with enough force to cause bruises, broken bones, or burns. Drivers sitting too close to the steering wheel, known as “out-of-position,” are at higher risk for face or chest injuries. This is true even when the airbag functions exactly as it’s supposed to.
Airbag Malfunctions
In other cases, airbags may malfunction, which can lead to serious injuries. For example, sometimes the airbag does not deploy at all during a serious accident, leading to preventable injuries. In other cases, airbags may deploy with too much force and too quickly, causing serious injuries.
Manufacturing Defects (Like The Takata Recall)
In other situations, a defect can be the cause of serious injuries – for example, the Takata recall. Defective inflators can explode on deployment, producing metal shrapnel. This can cause severe lacerations or piercing injuries.
Airbags are supposed to save lives, but accidents and defects can result in further injury. If you suffered any of these injuries, it’s a good idea to speak with an Indianapolis personal injury lawyer as soon as possible to see what your options are. Reach out today to schedule a free consultation with one of our personal injury attorneys.
