bright-hare-4342h ago

Airbags never went off during a pretty serious crash — is that even a thing we can pursue?

Hey everyone, long-time lurker, first time posting. My mom was in a collision about two weeks ago — another driver ran a red light and hit her hard enough that her car got towed from the scene. She walked away with a sprained wrist, some serious bruising across her chest, and what her doctor is now calling a mild concussion.

Here's what's been nagging at me ever since: none of the airbags deployed. Not the driver's side, not the side curtains, nothing. The impact was significant enough to crumple the front quarter panel and set off the seatbelt pretensioner (the seatbelt locked and left bruising on her collarbone). So the car clearly registered a serious event — it just... didn't pop the bags.

I've been reading that airbag systems can malfunction or be triggered at thresholds that vary a lot by manufacturer. I don't know enough about this to say whether this was a sensor issue, a defect, or just how that car was designed. But it feels wrong.

My mom's injuries, thankfully, aren't catastrophic. But her doctor flagged that the chest bruising could have been a lot worse, and we're still waiting to see how the concussion plays out over the next few weeks.

Some questions rattling around in my head:

Does a non-deployment claim require serious injury, or can the potential for worse harm matter?
Would this be against the manufacturer, not just the at-fault driver?
Is it even worth documenting at this point, or is it too late?

We've reported to her insurance. Just trying to figure out if there's more we should be doing. Any experience with this appreciated.

9 replies

Most helpful first

mellow-marten-8782h ago
This happened to us a few years back — T-bone at an intersection, bags didn't go off, and everyone said the same thing: 'oh the sensors probably didn't hit the right angle.' I never fully bought that. We ended up having an independent mechanic pull the event data recorder info before the car got crushed. If your mom's car is still sitting at a lot somewhere, that's probably the first thing I'd push on — get someone to preserve that data before the insurance company decides to total it and move on.
- cool-marmot-4732h ago
  Not legal advice, but I'll share what I know generally: non-deployment cases can involve both a product liability claim against the vehicle manufacturer AND a standard negligence claim against the at-fault driver — they don't cancel each other out. The injury severity matters for damages, but the defect question is somewhat separate. The key is preserving evidence early: the vehicle itself, the event data recorder (EDR), and your mom's medical records documenting that the restraint system activated while the airbags didn't. Talk to someone soon — some of this evidence has a short window.
- bold-marten-2942h ago
  I'll be honest with you because I used to sit on the other side of this. If your mom files a claim with her own insurer and separately the at-fault driver's insurer, those companies are going to look at her injuries and anchor their thinking there. They're not naturally going to volunteer 'hey, maybe there's a product defect angle here.' That's just not how adjusters are trained to think. You have to be the one to raise it — or have someone raise it on your behalf — or it'll just get folded into a routine bodily injury settlement.
careful-finch-2032h ago
The concussion piece worries me more than people realize. Mild TBIs can look totally manageable for the first week or two and then symptoms start compounding — sleep issues, memory fog, sensitivity to light. Make sure her doctor knows she was in a crash and specifically documents the mechanism of injury. If she ends up needing neurological follow-up, you want that paper trail connected back to the accident clearly.
- kind-kestrel-4472h ago
  Do NOT let them total and dispose of the car until someone has had a chance to document the airbag system. Once that car gets crushed or auctioned, so does a lot of your evidence. Insurance companies move fast on totaled vehicles. Ask them directly to hold it, and get that in writing.
bold-wren-7022h ago
A few practical things worth doing right now regardless of what you decide legally:

1. Request the police report if you haven't already — officer observations about the scene matter. 2. Take photos of the interior showing the steering wheel and dashboard with no deployed bags, if the car is still accessible. 3. Keep a symptom journal for your mom starting today — dates, what she felt, what she couldn't do. This becomes really useful if her concussion drags on. 4. Write down everything you remember about the crash details while it's fresh.

None of this costs anything and all of it helps if you end up needing it.
careful-crane-6432h ago
Genuine question — do you know the speed at impact and the angle of the collision? Airbags are calibrated not to deploy in certain lower-speed or off-angle impacts specifically to avoid injuring people unnecessarily. I'm not saying nothing went wrong, but before assuming defect I'd want to know whether any accident reconstruction has been done. Sometimes the system worked exactly as designed, which would obviously change the picture.
warm-wolf-7052h ago
I know this is stressful, but the fact that your mom is upright and her injuries are relatively minor is genuinely something. And the silver lining of noticing the airbag thing now is that you caught it before you signed anything or accepted any settlement. A lot of people only realize later that they left something on the table. You're ahead of where most people are at two weeks out.
cool-otter-2832h ago
I just want to say — you're clearly a really caring kid for digging into all of this for your mom. It's a lot to navigate when you're also just relieved she's okay. I hope she heals up fast and you get some clarity on the airbag situation soon. 💛