According to research from the National Institutes of Health, motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of eye injuries in the United States (NIH). According to a study, the risk of eye injuries was highest among people aged 15 to 19, which identified an estimated 75,028 eye injuries connected to car accidents that happened over seven years. Airbags frequently cause eye injuries in car accidents.
You might be entitled to damages if you sustained eye injuries due to the deployment of your airbag after a collision that was not your fault. Make contact with a knowledgeable attorney. For more information on your best course of action, click here.
What Kind of Eye Damage Can Air Bags Cause?
Airbags save lives, but they can potentially hurt people when they deploy. Airbag injuries are especially prone to occur to the eyes. When an airbag deploys during a collision, it could sustain damage in one or both of the following ways:
- Toxic chemicals: Air bags must quickly inflate to prevent injury effectively. It is achieved through the presence of specific compounds. Inflated airbags release these chemicals into the atmosphere. Lung irritation and eye irritation are possible effects of these fumes.
- Impact of deployment: When an airbag deploys quickly, it may strike the face and cause injury to the ocular bones or the eye’s iris. The retina of the eye may potentially sustain severe, piercing wounds.
Even though being hit with a fully deployed airbag caused most eye injuries, striking a vehicle occupant with an airbag that was actively deploying resulted in more severe harm to the eye. Even slight impact incidents might result in severe eye injuries.
What Elements Raise the Chance of Eye Damage from Air Bags?
Researchers discovered that the left eye is more prone to damage than the right eye in the study mentioned above. The risk of harm is higher with non-tethered airbags with longer inflation distances. In addition, sitting too near the steering wheel, wearing spectacles, and not fastening your seatbelt could all worsen airbag eye injuries.
Types Of Airbag Malfunctions
Typical airbag issues include the following:
- Deployment that employs excessive force and leaves drivers with severe burns or facial fractures
- Slow deployment. When this occurs, the driver may be thrown forward by the hit and too close to the airbag when it eventually inflates, resulting in fractured ribs, neck fractures, and other severe injuries.
- The driver’s head hits the dashboard, windshield, or steering wheel after the airbag fails to deploy correctly in a crash.
