Seat Belts and Air Bags

San Diego Defective Seatbelt and Airbag Litigation

There is no question that seatbelts and airbags have contributed a great deal to highway safety in the years since they have been introduced. Air bags have been credited with reducing fatalities in head-on collisions by as much as 30 percent. A defective seatbelt or airbag, however, can be as dangerous as none at all, and in some cases, can even turn minor injuries into disabling or fatal ones. If you need advice about your legal alternatives in a motor vehicle accident with injuries caused or aggravated by defective seatbelts or airbag failure, contact an experienced Southern California personal injury lawyer at The McClellan Law Firm for a free consultation.

Among the injuries that can result from performance failure or defective design or installation of seatbelts and airbags are the following:

• Blunt force injuries to the head and chest
• Ejection from the vehicle in roof crush accidents or SUV rollovers
• Amputation of fingers or a hand
• Paralysis resulting from injuries to the spine
• Perforation or rupture of internal organs
• Car Seats, infant seats, and child seats

Persons at particular risk of severe injury or death due to improper seatbelt or airbag performance are children, infants and adults of short stature, especially in cases of airbag deployment. Because children most usually ride in the back seat of passenger vehicles, they are also at risk of injuries caused by seatbelts that only secure the lap. In fact, one such case led to a settlement of $6 million for our client, and also was instrumental in passing the California law requiring that manufacturers warn of the dangers of lap-only rear passenger seatbelts.

Car seats, child seats and infant seats give rise to special design considerations that are sometimes ignored, leading to designed in defects that result in injuries to infants and children. Often the instructions that come with the car seats, child seats and infant seats are inadequate to properly advise parents on how to safely secure their children.

At The McClellan Law Firm, products liability claims against auto manufacturers have represented a core practice focus for many years. To learn how we can represent your interests effectively in a case involving defective seatbelts or airbags, contact one of our attorneys for a free evaluation of your claims.