Airbag Injury Settlements
By Mustafa Bilgic · Updated 24 August 2026
Airbags save lives, but they can also cause serious injuries — facial fractures, chemical burns, hearing damage, and eye trauma from the deployment force. When an airbag fails to deploy at all, the occupant suffers injuries that the restraint system was designed to prevent. Both scenarios can produce valid injury claims, but they follow different legal paths. This is general information, not legal advice — consult a lawyer.
Airbag claims are product-liability cases that require expert analysis of crash data and deployment mechanics. Preserve the vehicle and all its electronic records — they are the core evidence.
Two Kinds of Airbag Injury Claims
The first type involves an airbag that deployed as designed but caused injury through the force of deployment itself. Airbags inflate in milliseconds at high speed, and occupants seated too close to the dashboard, children in forward-facing seats, or smaller adults can sustain burns from the propellant chemicals, fractures from the bag's impact, or abrasions from the fabric surface. These injuries do not necessarily mean the airbag was defective — but if the deployment force was excessive for the crash severity, a design-defect claim may exist.
The second type involves an airbag that failed to deploy, deployed late, or deployed without a collision. Non-deployment in a qualifying crash leaves the occupant exposed to steering-wheel, dashboard, and windshield impacts that the airbag was engineered to prevent. These are product-liability claims against the vehicle manufacturer, the airbag manufacturer, or both.
Product Liability: Defect, Causation, and Damages
Airbag injury claims fall under product-liability law. Depending on the state, you may pursue a strict-liability theory (the product was defective and caused injury, regardless of the manufacturer's care), a negligence theory (the manufacturer failed to meet the standard of care in design or testing), or a breach-of-warranty theory. Most airbag cases proceed under strict liability because it removes the burden of proving the manufacturer's internal decision-making.
Causation is the contested battleground. The manufacturer will argue that the crash itself — not the airbag — caused your injuries, or that the airbag performed within design parameters. Your lawyer retains biomechanical and automotive-engineering experts who reconstruct the crash, analyse the airbag module's deployment data, and establish that the airbag's behaviour caused or worsened specific injuries.
Recalls, Class Actions, and Individual Claims
Large-scale airbag defects — the most prominent involving a major airbag manufacturer's inflators that could rupture and send metal fragments into the cabin — result in recalls and class-action litigation. If your injury involves a recalled airbag, your individual claim benefits from the recall's implicit admission that the product was defective. You can still file an individual lawsuit for your specific damages rather than joining a class action, and doing so often produces a better result for serious injuries.
Check the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recall database for your vehicle's make, model, and year. If a recall covers your airbag system, the manufacturer was already on notice of the defect, which strengthens your case and may eliminate certain defences.
What to Do After an Airbag Injury
Get medical treatment immediately. Airbag chemical burns require specific wound care, and hearing damage from the deployment noise may not be immediately obvious. Tell the emergency-room staff that your injuries are airbag-related — this ensures the medical record reflects the mechanism of injury from day one.
Do not repair or dispose of the vehicle. The airbag module, the crash sensor data, and the deployment mechanism are physical evidence that your lawyer and experts will examine. A spoliation letter sent to the manufacturer and insurer preserves the electronic data stored in the vehicle's event-data recorder. Photograph the deployed airbag, the cabin interior, and your injuries at the scene or at the hospital.
Frequently asked questions
Can I claim if the airbag deployed correctly but still injured me?
Possibly. If the deployment force was disproportionate to the crash severity, or if the airbag system failed to account for occupant size and position, a design-defect argument exists. However, minor burns and abrasions from a properly functioning airbag in a serious crash may not support a claim because the airbag prevented worse injuries.
Who do I sue — the car manufacturer or the airbag maker?
Both can be defendants. The vehicle manufacturer is responsible for the overall restraint system design and integration. The airbag component manufacturer is responsible for the module's engineering and quality. Your lawyer sues the parties whose conduct or product caused the defect.
Does a recall help my case?
Yes. A recall is evidence that the manufacturer identified a defect in the airbag system. While a recall itself is not an admission of liability for your specific injury, it establishes that the product was flawed, which eliminates one of the manufacturer's strongest defences.
What if the car is old and the airbag degraded over time?
Airbag propellant can degrade with age and humidity exposure, increasing the risk of malfunction. If the manufacturer knew that the propellant had a limited effective lifespan and failed to issue a recall or service advisory, a failure-to-warn claim may exist. Vehicle age alone does not bar the claim.