Air Bag Safety from Your Tampa Injury Lawyer

Since the 1980s, air bags have been installed in new cars and trucks to provide occupants with an extra layer of safety in case of an accident. The concept of an air bag is relatively simple; if you are in a car accident, the air bag inflates, providing a "pillow" to protect your body from injuries. Studies over the years have shown, however, that air bags themselves may cause injuries in an auto accident. In a continuing effort to keep our fellow area residents informed, the following information from Tampa injury lawyer Dale Appell, P.A. provides a basic overview of air bag function and safety.

To do its job, and air bag must inflate at an incredibly high rate of speed. For example, picture yourself driving down I-275 in Tampa at 55 miles per hour and being in a collision. Upon impact, your car will go from 55 to zero almost immediately. Within this millisecond timeframe, your airbag is designed to inflate fast enough to protect your body from being thrown around by the force of the impact. Typically, this means the airbags must inflate at a speed of about 100 miles per hour. In most cases, an air bag will cause no injuries or perhaps minor injuries like surface burns and small cuts.

In rare cases, however, air bags have been known to cause serious injuries in an auto accident, or even death. There are several reasons for this potential danger, such as:

• The car occupant is sitting too close to the airbag
• There are objects in the car that are attached on, or near, where the airbag deploys
• The car occupant is unrestrained or improperly restrained
• The occupant of the car is small in stature

Due to the hazards associated with air bags that deploy in an auto accident, it is highly recommended that all passengers be properly restrained in their seatbelts. Children under the age of 12 should remain in the car's rear seat and properly restrained with the car's seat belt. Infants should never be placed in a rear-facing infant seat while in the front seat of a vehicle. For babies age one and over, if the child must sit in the front seat of the car, make sure he or she is properly secured in a front-facing child safety seat or booster seat, and move the car's seat back as far as possible.

More recent evidence has shown that air bags are capable of inflicting serious eye injuries and blindness in an auto accident. Even during a minor car accident, it's quite possible that air bags may cause severe trauma to the eye socket and eyeball itself.