Airbag Defect Sparks Nationwide Recall Due to Risk of Injury and Death

Imagine being involved in a car accident and expecting your airbags to deploy but the airbag never deploys.  One of the things that is most commonly looked for in a car purchase is safety.  A major safety feature in cars that are standard today are airbags.  You trust that if you are involved in a car accident the airbag will deploy and your seatbelt will restrain you, but, unfortunately, many people have found this to be untrue.  Sometimes airbags fail due to a defect in the vehicle's computer system or a defect in the airbag sensor. 

Recently there have been two major recalls issued by leading car manufacturers due to defective airbags that pose the risk of causing serious injury and even death.

The most recent of the two recalls comes from Mitsubishi who, along with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), announced on September 15 that they are recalling 2010 Mitsubishi Endeavor's manufactured between May 26 and July 28, 2009.  Mitsubishi is recalling the vehicle because the seat mounted side airbag frames are improperly welded.  If your vehicle has improper welding it can cause the airbags to fail to deploy during an accident and can cause fatal injury and possibly even death.  Mitsubishi will be sending out recall notices to its customers and has given anyone owning this vehicle the instruction to take their car to any Mitsubishi dealership to have the welding inspected.  If the mechanic finds a defect with the welding they will fix it free of charge to correct the problem.

The other recall was issued in July for Honda Accords, Civics and Acura TL's.  Over 440,000 Honda and Acura's were recalled during this recall due to an increased internal pressure inside of the airbag.  If the airbag has an increased internal pressure and deploys it may cause metal fragments to pass through the cloth airbag cushion material causing fatal injury or death to the driver and passengers in the vehicle.  So far there have been six reports of injury and one death from the airbag recall.  Vehicles affected by this recall are 2001 - 2002 Honda Accords, 2001 Honda Civics and 2002 - 2003 Honda TL's.  At the original time of the recall in November of last year Honda only recalled a little over 1,000 vehicles but then contacted the NHTSA again in July and announced that the recall would now include 440,000 vehicles.  The NHTSA is investigating Honda's delay in announcing the recall of the larger amount of vehicles.  If Honda is found guilty of delaying a major recall on its vehicles it can be fined up to hundreds of thousands of dollars by the NHTSA. 

If you or a loved one was involved in an accident where your airbag did not deploy and you were seriously injured you may be considering contacting an injury lawyer due to the injuries you sustained and permanent damages or scars that you may have sustained.  Being involved in an accident of such severity is a very serious matter and we at Decker, Decker, Dito and Internicola, LLP do not take this situation lightly.  Contact Frank J. Dito Jr., Staten Island personal injury attorney, to find out how to get your product liability case started against the manufacturer of your car, truck, van or SUV.