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Personal Injury Blog

Chrysler Recalls Minivans over Airbag Deployment Failure Risks

Chrysler has announced a recall of more than 367,000 minivans because of airbag deployment failure in these vehicles. The recall involves 357,350 Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans. These vehicles belong to the 2008 model year. According to Chrysler, water leaks from the air conditioning system could cause the airbags to malfunction and inflate inadvertently.

Inadvertent deployment of an airbag can be just as devastating and serious as airbag deployment failure. According to Chrysler, the airbag defect was discovered in 2008 during an investigation. The company found that the heating and cooling systems of these cars came with a defect that caused a leak. That leak was likely to cause inadvertent deployment of an airbag.

Initially, the company failed to take the problem seriously because it did not believe that it posed a health hazard. However, Chrysler began to receive a number of complaints related to inadvertent deployment of airbags. These complaints spiked between July and September this year. It was only after this increase in complaints that the company moved to announce a recall.

Apart from seatbelts, airbags have been the biggest auto safety innovation in history. Just about every automobile now comes with airbags, and many now also come with side air bag systems that protect passengers from injuries in a side impact crash. According to estimates since 2006, more than 137 million automobiles have come with airbags. Those numbers are likely to have increased manifold by 2010. Unfortunately, California Airbag Accident Lawyers come across far too many reports of malfunctioning airbags. Many times, the malfunctioning is a result of defective engineering and design of the vehicle.

<strong>Airbag deployment failure</strong> can be due to any number of causes. Drivers tend to take airbags for granted, but the fact is that airbag systems can be complex, and conceal intricate wiring and sensors. Malfunctioning in these wires and sensors can cause the airbag to malfunction. Besides, airbag systems may also come with hazardous components or parts that increase the risk of injury to a passenger when they inflate. Sometimes, airbag failure can be traced to engineering failures. In other cases, these systems may not have been installed properly, and therefore, failed to deploy properly.

Besides, airbag injuries can also occur because of structural defects. For instance, the risk of injuries can be greater, if the position of the seat causes the occupant to come into contact with the airbag much later. Besides, there may be other factors that affect the effectiveness of the airbag. For instance, the occupant’s weight, as well as the seating position may also impact when and how soon he comes in contact with airbag. The good news is that modern airbag systems are designed to come with sensors that determine the occupant’s weight and seating position, as well as other factors to control the speed with which the airbag inflates. The bad news is that many times, these indicators and systems fail.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of airbag related injuries. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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