Pursuant to my previous blog enrty on the failure of air bags to deploy, General Motors settled a lawsuit brought against it over injuries she sustained in a 2003 crash in Texas when the air bags in her 1996 GMC Sonoma didn’t deploy.
The lawsuit charged that the failure to deploy was not due to a mechanical defect, but to a design defect in the product, a short cut taken by engineers at GM to avoid inappropriate deployments that can also lead to injuries. When an expert witness came forward with testimony that GM had deliberately raised the crash speed thresholds too high to protect passengers in potentially life-threatening automobile accidents.
The plaintiff in the case had hit a guardrail while traveling 33 mph, a potentially lethal speed according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) figures, but her airbag did not deploy. Partly as a result, she suffered injuries to her ribs, knee, and spine.
GM maintains that its own experts would have stated that the rise in crash speed thresholds was necessary to avoid inappropriate air bag deployments and therefore actually reduced injuries, but it decided to settle the case before putting its experts on the stand.
If you have been injured in an automobile accident in which your car’s airbags did not deploy, but should have, contact the experienced personal injury attorneys at Houston, Texas-area firm Kennedy-Hodges, LLP, who are prepared to discuss your claim in a free consultation, and who will never take a fee unless they win your case.
