Airbags are credited with reducing numerous injuries and saving many lives during vehicle accidents. However, there have been incidents where they do not function as intended, and have even caused injuries such as explosive powder burns, detached eye retinas, child suffocation and impact deaths. In still other cases, airbags have not deployed when they should have, or even deployed unnecessarily, thus causing a car accident. In addition, many malfunctions do not occur in the airbag modules themselves, but rather in the electronic instruments and electromechanical devices that detect a collision and signal if, and when, an airbag should deploy.
We have experience in many aspects of airbag safety including:
Through scientific analysis, we can help you answer pertinent questions such as:
Airbag did not deploy in a head on crash:
A car's driver was seriously injured when he struck another vehicle. The automobile manufacturer claimed that the vehicle's onboard computer indicated "no fault codes" associated with the airbag system and, therefore, the impact was not sufficient to require its deployment. However, the driver received a handsome settlement after we showed that, based on government airbag standards, the impact crush severity and direction were sufficient to expect airbag deployment.
Car strikes guardrail and rolls down hill:
A driver lost control of his car and struck a guardrail, which did not stop the vehicle. It then rolled down an embankment and landed upside down in a creek, nearly drowning the driver. By analyzing the car's damage, we discouraged the driver's lawyer from pursuing a futile claim of airbag malfunction against the car-maker, but encouraged a successful suit against the guardrail manufacturer, since it should have contained and deflected the car from running off the roadway.
Dr. Irving Ojalvo was, at the time of this article's publication, the Chairman of Technology Associates (www.technology-assoc.com), a forensic engineering firm with offices in New York City and Connecticut. The firm's technical personnel, all of whom have advanced degrees, perform accident reconstruction involving issues of biomechanics, mechanical, traffic, and human factors engineering.
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7/31/2009· Accident Investigation & Reconstruction
Forensic Engineering Experts: Electric Shock
Electric power and electronic appliances are so integrated with modern life that there is a high degree of likelihood that everyone will receive one or more electric shocks in a lifetime. In many cases, only trivial power levels are involved.
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Low Speed Automobile Collisions
Low speed motor vehicle collisions are a common occurrence. The use of cellular phones, text messaging, and e-mailing while driving has only increased the frequency of low speed motor vehicle collisions. A motor vehicle collision where there is only minor damage to the vehicles may result in personal injury claims for substantial sums.
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Forensic Engineering Experts: Animation
Animations are useful visual tools that can help jurors understand how an incident could, or could not, have occurred. Simply describing an event in court, or showing still pictures, may be insufficient to explain a complex sequence of events.
