Product liability places responsibility on manufacturers, distributors, and sellers for injuries caused by a product. In Nevada, the doctrine of strict product liability, which was first developed in the landmark Shoshone Coca-Cola Bottling Co. v. The Dolinski case, is directly applicable to auto parts, like vehicle airbags. If the airbags do not function as intended during a crash, injured motorists may have a case against the manufacturer and vehicle designer.

A non-deployment claim is complex and requires an understanding of Nevada tort law, federal safety requirements, causes of technical failure, and typical manufacturer defenses. Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) allow victims to receive compensation for pain, lost wages, and medical costs resulting from defective automotive parts. The information below will help you better understand state product liability laws, which can give you a powerful advantage in navigating complex litigation and obtaining the maximum possible financial recovery after a serious accident.

Understanding Airbag Non-Deployment Under Nevada Product Liability Law

Nevada has a strict tort law standard that requires safety equipment to function as intended in certain crash scenarios to prevent serious injury to the occupants. Under the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A, which was adopted by the Nevada Supreme Court, manufacturers are required by law to make safety restraint systems reliable in the foreseeable event of a collision.

When an airbag fails to deploy, the physical consequences can be devastating, transforming a survivable collision into a catastrophic event. Under product liability law, an airbag is considered defective if:

  • It does not perform as safely as a reasonable person would expect when used in a reasonably foreseeable manner
  • The risk of danger outweighs the design's benefits

A key issue in this case is that state tort law imposes strict liability on designers, component suppliers, and vehicle assemblers if the SRS fails to activate during a high-speed impact. A study of the legal status of the devices requires a review of federal safety regulations and the application of state tort principles to establish a clear basis for a defective product claim.

Pursuing a lawsuit for a malfunctioning safety restraint does not require proving negligence or carelessness on the part of the automaker. The doctrine of strict product liability eases the burden of proof for injured consumers. Under this legal framework, the manufacturer is strictly liable for any injuries that occur if the product enters the stream of commerce in a defective state that is unreasonably dangerous. You need only prove the evidentiary threshold, which requires that:

  • The car or its airbag system was defective when it was new and out of the manufacturer's hands
  • The defect played a close role in the airbag failure during the accident
  • The failure of the airbag was the direct cause of your injuries

This legal doctrine does not require proof of corporate negligence. It focuses solely on the product's hazardous condition.

What Causes Airbags to Fail During a Crash?

Automotive product liability claims generally fall into three distinct legal categories:

  • Design defects
  • Manufacturing defects
  • Marketing or warning defects

A design defect is one that affects an entire line of vehicles. All airbags manufactured with the same design are subject to the same defect. On the other hand, a manufacturing defect is an anomaly that happens when, during the manufacturing phase, one vehicle in a batch or one part of the vehicle exhibits a localized defect, for example, miswiring a sensor or contamination of a propellant compound.

Warning defects occur when companies fail to adequately warn drivers of known risks or operational limitations of the safety system, breaching their legal duty under Nevada product liability law.

Reasons Why Airbags Do Not Deploy in a Motor Vehicle Crash

Airbag systems consist of a complex network of crash sensors, wiring harnesses, and control modules that are regulated by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 208 performance requirements and must deploy an inflation command within milliseconds of a crash. Failure of these components can prevent the airbag from deploying during a high-impact collision. It is important to determine exactly what the mechanical or electronic failure was in order to sue the responsible party for damages.

Some of the common reasons include the following:

Malfunctioning Crash Sensors and Impact Thresholds

Airbags do not always deploy. They are designed to deploy based on the deceleration experienced or the angle of impact. Strategically located crash sensors detect sudden changes in velocity throughout the front and sides of your car.

However, if these sensors are not calibrated, are corroded, or are damaged from a previous minor fender-bender, they will not transmit the electronic signal needed to inflate the airbags. If a manufacturer sets the airbag deployment threshold too high, the car could absorb an impact without triggering the airbags, leaving you without protection.

Electronic Control Unit (ECU) Failures and Software Glitches

The Electronic Control Unit (ECU) acts as your vehicle's safety brain. It collects real-time data from crash sensors to meet federal safety standards for restraint activation. This fast decision-making process can be interrupted by software glitches, power failures, or internal circuit board failures within the ECU.

When the control unit loses power in accordance with the power-loss safeguards, fractionally ahead of impact, or when firmware corruption occurs, the control unit might be unable to deliver the electric charge to the inflator igniter. It will take advanced forensic diagnostics to retrieve internal diagnostic trouble codes and error logs that are stored in the vehicle's computer memory to pinpoint an ECU failure.

Previous Collision Repairs and Counterfeit Replacement Parts

If the bodywork was done by someone in the past who did not follow Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines and NHTSA repair directives, the vehicle also risks failing to deploy the airbags.

After a previous accident, unscrupulous repair shops may use salvaged, recycled, or counterfeit replacement parts to save money instead of certified OEM components. Counterfeit airbags often lack necessary internal propellants or have deteriorated chemical compounds that fail to react when ignited. Furthermore, if the repair shop fails to reconnect the sensor wiring harnesses or fails to repair any underlying electrical problems, the whole supplemental restraint system remains disabled in subsequent crashes.

The main reasons that lead to compromised deployment mechanics include the following:

  • Installation of gray-market or counterfeit replacement inflators following prior accidents in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 30122 prohibitions against making safety equipment inoperative
  • Disconnected or corroded wiring connectors left unaddressed during auto-body repair
  • Non-alignment of front-end impact sensors due to bumper replacement
  • Failure of internal battery backups in the control module when the vehicle is powered down

Establishing Liability and Overcoming Manufacturer Defenses in Nevada Courts

To file a product liability lawsuit against a large global automotive company, the evidentiary standards outlined in NRS Chapter 42 (Damages) and the Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure (NRCP) will apply. Manufacturers have well-trained legal departments to challenge causation and allege driver negligence. Overcoming these defenses will require the parties to provide meticulous documentation, provide expert engineering testimony, and apply Nevada civil procedure carefully.

The Burden of Proof for Injured Plaintiffs

Succeeding in a defective airbag lawsuit requires satisfying a strict evidentiary burden. You must prove that:

  • The car was defective at the time it was taken off the manufacturer's lot
  • The defect made the product unreasonably dangerous
  • The defect was the proximate cause of your physical injuries

Expert reconstruction using the standard of evidence established by NRS 50.275 must be performed to prove that the crash forces were sufficient to trigger an airbag's deployment.

Automakers will claim that the impact was minimal and did not trigger the airbag or that your injury was caused by another factor. Without robust technical evidence, auto manufacturers will readily claim that the crash was too minor to warrant airbag deployment or that outside factors were to blame.

Common Defenses Raised by Automotive Manufacturers

When safety equipment malfunctions, automotive manufacturers often opt for legal defense rather than taking immediate responsibility to reduce or avoid financial liability. One of the most common defenses available under Nevada comparative negligence law (NRS 41.141) is that the accident was less severe than the design parameters would have predicted.

Manufacturers also assert claims for vehicle alterations under strict-liability principles. They could allege that modification by a third party, a previously unrepaired vehicle, or your lack of wearing a seatbelt played a role in your injuries.

The defense lawyers aggressively use these arguments to exonerate them of responsibility for failures in safety systems. Nevada applies the modified comparative fault doctrine. Under this doctrine, if the manufacturer can prove to the jury that your actions caused more than 50% of your injuries, for example, by not wearing your seatbelt or not maintaining the vehicle properly, you will be barred from recovering damages. If the court determines that the perceived fault is less than 51%, then the amount of damages will be reduced automatically in direct proportion to your fault percentage.

Personal injury lawyers conduct extensive technical investigations to demonstrate that the car's airbag defect was the direct, proximate cause of harm, not the user's fault. Attorneys keep the physical remains, download invaluable black box event data, and work with automotive design professionals. Moreover, attorneys can establish a clear chain of evidence to effectively counter any defense arguments regarding third-party modification or the severity of the impact, and ensure that negligent manufacturers are held 100% responsible under state law for their defective safety features.

Expert Witnesses and Black Box Data Extraction

Event Data Records, or black boxes, are found in modern vehicles. They capture key telemetry data from the pre-crash and crash phases of a vehicle's operation, in accordance with NHTSA's federal regulations on reporting such data.

Accessing and interpreting this data requires retaining qualified, specialized forensic engineering and accident reconstruction personnel. These technical experts study the vehicle's physical damage, inspect damage at the microscopic level on the sensor chip, and give sworn testimony in court. They are objective, and they can help you navigate between the technical details of the car's engineering and the legal requirements you need to meet to win your product liability case.

Your legal team will gather the following essential technical evidence to use in the case:

  • Event Data Recorder (EDR) metrics and their interpretation
  • Material analysis of the torn wiring harnesses or sensor brackets
  • Computer-aided engineering simulations of the exact crash vector and delta-V force
  • Logs of factory assembly and quality control audit records from the manufacturing plant

Compensation and Statutes of Limitations for Airbag Injury Claims

The aftermath of an accident involving serious injuries from a non-inflated airbag is overwhelming with physical, emotional, and financial consequences. Injured parties are entitled to recover full damages from liable parties. However, there are hard deadlines for filing the lawsuit. Therefore, prompt legal action is necessary.

Types of Damages Available in a Defective Airbag Claim

Injuries that result from defective airbags can range from severe facial trauma to traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries, and the financial costs can be overwhelming. Personal injury and tort laws (governing general common law rules of compensatory damages) allow you to seek full compensatory damages to restore your financial and physical position. If a manufacturer acted with conscious disregard for consumer safety, you may also pursue punitive damages under NRS 42.005.

Economic damages are all quantifiable monetary losses. They include:

  • Current and future medical costs
  • Surgical costs
  • Rehabilitation therapy
  • Assistive medical devices
  • Lost wages due to lost time at work

Non-economic damages are damages that are awarded for subjective, non-monetary damages, which do not have an objective bill or price tag. They include compensation for intangible losses, including:

  • Physical pain
  • Emotional distress
  • Permanent disfigurement
  • Loss of quality of life due to the manufacturer's defective product

Both types of damages need to be assessed and calculated. This involves a thorough analysis of lost income and the future effects on your quality of life. Medical bills and paycheck stubs are straightforward to prove economic losses. However, proving non-economic harm involves working closely with medical specialists, vocational experts, and life-care planners. Furthermore, Nevada does not limit non-economic recovery in product liability cases, allowing the injured consumer to recover the full extent of his/her actual injuries. Securing comprehensive compensation ensures that corporate entities carry the full burden of their defective designs, covering both your immediate bills and your future stability.

Strict Filing Deadlines Under Nevada Law

If you fail to act within the specified legal time frame, even if the manufacturer's liability is obvious, you will not be able to recover financial compensation. Personal injury and product liability claims in Nevada must be filed within 2 years of the accident under the Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) 11.190(4)(e). The delay in starting legal action can result in the loss of important evidence, as insurance companies may salvage, crush, or repair vehicles. An early investigation will safeguard your legal rights and ensure that important physical elements remain available for independent engineering review.

Steps You Can Take to Protect a Defective Airbag Claim After a Crash

It is crucial to take prompt and deliberate action after an airbag non-deployment accident to preserve your right to file a lawsuit while gathering physical and digital evidence by issuing formal spoliation warning letters to insurers and vehicle owners. It is never a good idea to have your wrecked car taken to the insurance company's salvage yard without obtaining a preservation letter or court order to prevent it from being scrapped.

The vehicle itself serves as the primary piece of evidence in a product liability claim. Its intact sensors, wiring modules, and unspent inflators must be examined by neutral automotive experts. Photographs of the accident site, pictures of your injuries, and keeping all medical records make your case even stronger against a well-organized corporate defense. You can take the following steps after a car accident to protect a defective airbag claim:

  • Securing the damaged car in a safe facility to avoid any unauthorized disposal at a salvage yard
  • Accessing public records, collision reports, and statements from witnesses at the time of collision
  • Taking note of any physical injuries, any medical treatment, and the cost of ongoing rehabilitation
  • Retaining independent mechanical and forensic experts who can check that the surveyor does not change the vehicle before the insurance assessor.

Find a Personal Injury Lawyer Near Me

If an airbag fails to deploy in a major crash, the legal and physical difficulties are tremendous. It takes a high level of understanding of Nevada product liability law, timely preservation of evidence, and quick action to secure essential data related to an event in the recorder before it is lost and cannot be retrieved from the manufacturer.

Fighting the corporate legal team requires an equally capable team of personal injury attorneys. At the Las Vegas Personal Injury Attorney Law Firm, we will investigate what went wrong with your car, secure the important evidence, and fight to secure the maximum compensation. If you have been injured in a car accident, call our attorneys today. Contact us at 702-996-1224 to schedule your confidential consultation and begin protecting your financial future.