Challenges Associated With Air Bag Cases

An air bag contains several functional parts. Moreover, each of those parts operates in response to specific conditions. Those facts help to explain the challenges posed to winning a case, specifically one that has focused on an air bag’s failure to function properly.

Needs that the lawyer for the plaintiff must address in the courtroom:

Need for expert witnesses: Those familiar with the air bag’s system and its data recorder. A search for such experts can consume a great deal of a lawyer’s time. In addition to experts on the air bag’s system, the court expects to hear from experts like an accident re-constructionist. Furthermore, the judge and jury seek information on the types of injuries that can result from an air bag’s failure to work properly.

Need for information on the age of the air bags: Car Accident Lawyer in Waterloo will have a requirement for any information about a given bag’s possible involvement in an earlier accident. Demand for information on the warranty that was linked to the bags in a given vehicle. Details on the warranty should reveal the strength of a claim, regarding a bag’s failure to work as expected. For instance, when did the warranty expire?

Other questions that ought to be answered in the courtroom:

Was the vehicle struck at a speed that should have caused the bags to deploy? Their deployment depends on the size of the impact at the time of the collision.

What parts might have been defective? An air bag contains sensors, electrical components, including wires, and a module. Severed wires could explain a bag’s failure to carry out its function. A module might not respond to the electrical messages.

Was any part of the entire system replaced? For instance, did the sun visor need to get replaced? In some vehicles the air bag’s wires pass through the sun visor.

In what degree of danger was the user of this product, the person that has brought the claim? Was that an unreasonable amount of danger? If a small child had been placed in the front seat, instead of the back one, the product (the air bag) would not have created the danger. That danger would have come from the child’s proximity to the deploying product (air bag).

Had any effort been made to plan ahead for the product’s possible failure to perform as expected? Had a safety system been installed? Did it work properly? The installation of a safety system would work in the favor of the company that had made the defective system/product.

Had the defective product (bag) been inspected by those in the manufacturing company’s quality control department? If so, how had the defect been overlooked? Just how obvious was that particular defect?