Jacksonville Attorneys Represent Clients In
Air Bag Liability Claims

Advocating For Your Right To Sue For Negligence

Air bags, considered a supplemental restraint system when used in combination with seat belts, provide added protection in an auto accident. When designed and installed properly, they have been found to reduce the severity of injuries in moderate to severe crashes. That’s why all passenger cars and light trucks manufactured since September 1, 2006, are required to have advanced frontal air bags. While they’ve saved thousands of lives, they’ve also been responsible for the injuries and deaths of some vehicle occupants, especially infants and children. When air bags are more harmful than helpful, you have the right to seek compensation for your injuries or those of your family.

Our experienced products liability attorneys at Fallgatter Catlin & Varon, P.A., know that air-bag technology and manufacturing isn’t perfect: Air bags have come a long way since their initial design and production, but even the most advanced products can be defective and lead to serious injury. If you’ve been injured by an air bag through no fault of your own, our lawyers are prepared to fight in court, when necessary, for your right to damages. We will hold manufacturers and car makers liable for their negligence.

How Air Bags Work—and How They Don’t

Third-generation, or advanced, air bags are safer overall than their earlier counterparts: inflating with less force and having more sophisticated sensing devices to deploy correctly. That doesn’t mean, however, that every air bag designed and manufactured is without defect, even though the technology is quite simple. In a moderate to severe crash, the air bag system’s electronic control unit sends a signal to the inflator within the air bag module. Inside that inflator is an igniter that begins a chemical reaction producing a harmless gas that inflates the bag in less than 1/20th of a second. But because air bags deploy so quickly, serious and sometimes deadly injuries result if the driver or passenger is too close to the bag, or in direct contact with it, when it first starts to inflate.

Defects in air bags may be caused by faulty design, poor manufacturing and incomplete testing and involve the following components:

• Sensors: If the signals that cause air bags to inflate aren’t working properly, an airbag can deploy when it’s not necessary or not deploy when it is.
• Inflation paths: An unsafe air bag will fail to inflate up before extending out.
• Inflators: If they’re too powerful, they can cause serious injury.
• Failures of on/off switches: These can lead to an air bag deploying when children are present as passengers.

Air bags should make driving less hazardous in the event of a crash. When they don’t, and when those devices cause harm, we hold the manufacturers responsible on your behalf and on behalf of the driving public in general.

The Jacksonville product liability lawyers at Fallgatter Catlin & Varon, P.A. have extensive experience protecting the rights of individuals injured by dangerous products such as:

Pharmaceutical drugs Tires Automobiles Car seats Medical devices

Appliances Power tools Manufacturing equipment Industrial equipment Baby seats Strollers

Contact Us For Help With Your Products Liability Claim

At Fallgatter Catlin & Varon, P.A., our experienced Jacksonville products liability attorneys represent clients who’ve been injured through no fault of their own by products, such as air bags, that they have every right to believe are safe. We fight to recover compensation for injuries or property damage suffered. A lawyer at our firm is ready to consult with you at no cost or obligation. Contact us online or call our law office at (904) 353-5800 to schedule an appointment.