Airbag Defects and Failure-to-Deploy Claims

An airbag is supposed to be the difference between a scare and a stretcher. When it fails to deploy — or deploys with too much force, too late, or not at all — a survivable crash can turn catastrophic. Here's how Michigan law lets you hold a manufacturer accountable.

Modern cars are engineered so that in a serious crash, the airbags fire in a fraction of a second to cushion your head and chest. That system saves thousands of lives a year. But airbags are complex, and they don't always work the way they should. When an airbag fails to deploy in a crash that should have triggered it — or deploys defectively — the injuries are often far worse than the crash alone would have caused. That's not just bad luck. It may be a defective product, and Michigan law treats it as one.

The Ways Airbags Fail

• Failure to deploy — the airbag stays in its housing during a crash forceful enough that it should have fired, leaving the occupant to strike the wheel, dash, or window.
• Late deployment — the bag fires a beat too late to catch the occupant safely.
• Over-aggressive deployment — the bag deploys with excessive force, causing burns, fractures, eye injuries, or worse, especially to smaller occupants and children.
• Rupture and shrapnel — the most notorious failure. Defective inflators (the Takata recall being the largest example) can explode and spray metal fragments into the cabin.
• Inadvertent deployment — the bag fires with no crash at all, startling the driver into a collision.

Why "Failure to Deploy" Injuries Are So Severe

Seatbelts and airbags are designed to work together. The belt restrains your torso; the airbag protects your head and chest from striking hard surfaces. When the airbag doesn't fire, that second layer of protection vanishes, and the result is often traumatic brain injury, facial and skull fractures, spinal injury, or death in a crash the occupant might otherwise have walked away from. That's why these cases so often involve catastrophic harm — the defect converts a survivable event into a devastating one.

Michigan Product Liability Law

An airbag claim is a product liability case against the parties in the chain that put a defective product on the road: the automaker, the airbag or inflator manufacturer, and potentially a supplier. Under Michigan law, you generally pursue one or more theories:

• Manufacturing defect — the airbag was built wrong, deviating from its intended design (a faulty sensor, a bad inflator).
• Design defect — the airbag system was unreasonably dangerous as designed, and a safer, practical alternative design existed.
• Failure to warn — the manufacturer knew of a risk and didn't adequately warn consumers.

Michigan's product liability statutes (MCL 600.2946 and related sections) set out how these claims work, including the manufacturer's defenses. Proving a design or manufacturing defect almost always requires expert engineering analysis of the vehicle and its components — which is why preserving the car is non-negotiable.

The Evidence That Wins or Loses the Case

Airbag cases live and die on physical evidence, and that evidence disappears fast after a crash:

• The vehicle itself. Do not let it be repaired, sold, or scrapped. The undeployed airbag module, sensors, and wiring must be examined intact.
• The event data recorder (EDR / "black box"). This module records crash forces, whether deployment was commanded, belt use, and speed — often the smoking gun showing the airbag should have fired.
• Recall and technical service bulletin history for the make, model, and inflator.
• The crash scene and vehicle damage, which establish the forces involved.
• Your medical records, tying the specific injuries to the failure of the restraint system.

The single biggest mistake we see is letting an insurer total and haul away the vehicle before an expert can inspect it. Once the car is gone, the defect may be impossible to prove.

How No-Fault Interacts With a Defect Claim

Because a crash is involved, Michigan's no-fault system still applies. Your own insurer pays PIP benefits — medical expenses and wage loss — regardless of fault. A claim against an at-fault driver for pain and suffering must clear the serious-injury threshold in MCL 500.3135. The product liability claim against the manufacturer is separate and is not limited by no-fault the way a claim against another driver is. In many airbag cases, both tracks run at once: PIP benefits, a possible third-party claim, and the product case against the manufacturer whose defect made everything worse.

What to Do After a Crash Where the Airbag Failed

1. Get medical care and document your injuries thoroughly — head injuries especially can be delayed.
2. Do NOT let the vehicle be repaired, sold, or scrapped. Tell your insurer in writing you need it preserved for inspection.
3. Photograph everything — the undeployed (or ruptured) airbag, the interior, the exterior damage, and the scene.
4. Keep all paperwork — the police report, repair estimates, and any recall notices you've received.
5. Check for recalls using your VIN, but don't assume the absence of a recall means there's no defect.
6. Call a lawyer immediately. The window to preserve the vehicle and its data is short, and manufacturers have teams of engineers and lawyers ready.

Comparative Fault and Deadlines

Michigan's comparative-negligence rule can apply, but a manufacturer generally can't escape a defect claim just because another driver caused the collision — the defect is a separate cause of the enhanced injuries. Product liability claims are generally subject to the three-year statute of limitations, and the practical deadline is even tighter because the evidence — the vehicle — can vanish in weeks.

The Bottom Line

You paid for a safety system that was supposed to protect you, and it didn't. When an airbag fails to deploy or deploys defectively, Michigan product liability law lets you hold the manufacturer accountable for the injuries that failure caused. These cases are technical and evidence-driven, and everything turns on preserving the vehicle before it's gone. If your airbag didn't do its job, call us right away — the sooner we act, the stronger your case.

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