If your airbag didn’t deploy in a crash and you were hurt, you may have a claim against the company that built the car or the airbag system. That claim is separate from anything you bring against the driver who hit you. It turns on three questions: should the crash have triggered the airbag, did a defect stop it, and were you injured worse because of it?
You don’t need those answers today. Almost nobody does. What you need is a clear picture of what “normal” looks like, what can break, and what to protect while you figure it out.
Can You Get Compensation When an Airbag Didn’t Deploy in a Crash?
Yes, when a defect is the reason. An airbag is a safety device with one job. If it stays packed in the steering wheel during the kind of collision it was built for, the manufacturer can be held responsible for the harm that followed.
Nevada applies strict liability to defective products. In plain terms, you don’t have to prove the automaker was careless. You have to show that the product was defective, that the defect was there when it left the manufacturer, and that it caused your injuries.
That is a different kind of case from a standard crash claim, and it’s why vehicle defect claims in Las Vegas involve a different set of defendants: the automaker, the parts supplier, and sometimes a seller or repair shop.
When Airbag Non-Deployment Is Normal vs. Defective
Not every crash is supposed to set off an airbag. Deployment is violent, and engineers design the system to hold back when a seat belt alone can do the work. So the first question is whether your crash crossed the line.
Crashes Where Airbags Are Designed to Stay Off
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says frontal airbags are generally designed for moderate to severe frontal crashes. That means roughly the force of hitting a solid barrier at 8 to 14 mph or more, or striking a parked car of similar size at about 16 to 28 mph or more.
Below that, staying off can be the correct result. The same is true in these situations:
- Rear-end impacts. Frontal airbags respond to sudden forward deceleration, and being hit from behind pushes you the other way.
- Side hits and rollovers. Frontal bags are not built for these. Side and curtain airbags have their own sensors and thresholds.
- An empty or lightly loaded passenger seat. Modern systems switch off the passenger airbag for a child, a small adult, or no one at all.
- Low-speed collisions. A parking-lot tap or a slow roll at a red light usually falls short of the threshold.
Red Flags That Point to a Defect
Some facts deserve a closer look. None of them proves a defect alone, but each is a reason to have the vehicle inspected before anyone touches it:
- A hard frontal or near-frontal collision at real speed, such as a head-on crash on US-95 or a high-speed impact at Sahara and Decatur
- Heavy front-end crush with no airbag at all
- One frontal airbag fired and the other did not, with both seats occupied by adults
- The airbag warning light was on, or flickering, before the crash
- Your face, head, or chest struck the steering wheel, dashboard, or windshield
- The car was in an earlier crash, or you bought it used without a full repair history
What Failed? The Components Behind an Airbag That Didn’t Deploy
An airbag is not one part. It is a chain, and the bag only fires if every link works within a few thousandths of a second. When one link fails, nothing happens, and from the driver’s seat you can’t tell which one it was.
Crash Sensors
Sensors at the front of the vehicle and inside the cabin measure how fast the car is slowing down. If one is faulty, badly mounted, or corroded, it can under-report the severity of the impact. The system then treats a serious crash as a minor one.
The Airbag Control Module
This is the computer that reads the sensors and decides whether to fire. A flawed circuit, a software error, or a threshold calibrated too high can all keep it from sending the signal. Federal recalls have been issued over control units that could fail to deploy airbags in a crash.
The module also stores crash data. So the part that may have failed is often the same part holding the record of what happened.
Wiring and the Clock Spring
The driver’s airbag sits in a steering wheel that turns. A coiled connector called a clock spring keeps it wired to the rest of the system. When that connector wears or breaks, the circuit opens and the signal never arrives. Damaged wiring or loose connectors elsewhere in the harness do the same thing.
The Inflator
The inflator creates the gas that fills the bag. If it fails to ignite, the bag stays folded even though every other part did its job. Inflators can also fail in the opposite direction and rupture with too much force, which is the problem behind the Takata airbag recall.
The Passenger Occupant Sensor
Weight sensors in the front passenger seat decide whether an adult is sitting there. When the system misreads an adult as a child or an empty seat, it shuts the airbag off. The passenger gets no protection in a crash where the driver’s side worked perfectly.
A Missing, Counterfeit, or Never-Replaced Airbag
Airbags deploy once. After a crash they must be replaced, and that doesn’t always happen. NHTSA has warned about counterfeit airbags and substandard replacement inflators turning up in used vehicles. In a city with as many resold and former rental cars as Las Vegas, this comes up.
When this is the cause, the responsible party may be a repair shop or seller rather than the automaker.
What You Have to Prove in a Nevada Airbag Defect Claim
A claim rests on four points:
- The airbag should have deployed. The speed, angle, and severity of the impact met the conditions the system was designed for.
- A defect is why it didn’t. Something in the design, the manufacturing, or the components failed.
- Your injuries were caused or made worse by the failure. Lawyers call this an enhanced injury. The question is what a working airbag would have prevented.
- You have real damages. Medical bills, lost income, and the physical toll of the injury.
Two points tend to surprise people. First, you may not have to name the exact broken part. In Nevada, proof that a product malfunctioned in an unexpected and dangerous way can itself be evidence of a defect. Engineers still do the detective work, but the law doesn’t demand that you arrive with the answer.
Second, the driver who caused the crash is still responsible for causing it. The airbag claim covers the added harm. Those are two claims with two sources of recovery, and who is liable in a Nevada motor vehicle accident is often more than one party. That holds even when no other car was involved, since a single-vehicle accident can still trace back to a failed part.
Every case is different, and the only way to know where yours stands is to have an attorney look at the facts and the vehicle.
What the Manufacturer Will Argue
Automakers defend these cases hard, and their arguments are predictable.
- “The crash was below the deployment threshold.” They will say the system worked as designed. Crash data, vehicle damage, and reconstruction answer this.
- “The angle was wrong.” They will call the impact a side or offset hit that frontal bags don’t cover.
- “You would have been hurt anyway.” They will argue the airbag would not have changed the outcome. Medical and biomechanical experts address what the bag would have prevented.
- “You weren’t wearing your seat belt.” Nevada law generally does not allow a seat belt violation to be used against you as negligence or as misuse of a product in a civil case.
Glen Howard worked as an insurance defense attorney before he started representing injured people. He has seen how these files are built from the other side, including which arguments are raised first and what evidence takes them apart.
What to Do Right Now If Your Airbags Didn’t Deploy
The vehicle is the evidence. Once it is repaired, sold, or crushed, the proof usually goes with it. The first few days matter most.
- Get medical care. Injuries from hitting the wheel or dashboard don’t always show up the first day. Here is when to seek medical care after a vehicle accident.
- Keep the car. Don’t authorize repairs. Don’t sign the title over. Find out exactly where the vehicle is, because a Las Vegas tow yard will not hold it forever.
- Tell the insurer in writing that the vehicle must be preserved. If the car is being declared a total loss, read what happens if your car is totaled before you agree to release it.
- Photograph everything. The undeployed steering wheel and dash, the warning lights, the front-end damage, the seat belts, and your injuries.
- Check for recalls. Run your VIN through NHTSA’s recall lookup and save the result.
- Hold off on recorded statements. You can report the crash without guessing on the record about speed or what the airbag “should” have done.
- Leave the crash data alone. In Nevada, the data in your vehicle’s recorder generally belongs to you as the registered owner. It should be downloaded by a qualified expert, not overwritten by a repair.
Nevada generally gives you two years from the date of injury to file. That sounds like plenty of time. The evidence rarely lasts that long.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you get compensation for airbags not deploying?
Yes, if a defect caused the failure and you were hurt because of it. Compensation in an airbag non-deployment claim can cover medical treatment, future care, lost wages, reduced earning ability, and pain and suffering. The claim is against the manufacturer or another company in the supply chain, and it can run alongside your claim against the at-fault driver. The amount depends on how much worse your injuries were without the airbag, which is why medical records and an engineering inspection both matter. See what compensation you can recover after a motor vehicle accident for how the categories work.
Can a car be totaled if the airbags didn’t deploy?
Yes. Whether a car is a total loss has nothing to do with the airbags. In Nevada, a vehicle is generally treated as a total loss when the cost of repair reaches 65 percent or more of its fair market value before the crash. A car with severe structural damage can hit that mark with every airbag still packed. A total loss with no deployment is worth noticing, because heavy damage and silent airbags is the combination that calls for an inspection. Just don’t let the total-loss process move the car out of your control first.
What happens if the airbags don’t deploy during a vehicle accident?
Your seat belt becomes your only restraint. In a moderate or severe frontal crash, that can mean your head, face, or chest hits the steering wheel, dashboard, or windshield. The injuries that follow are often more serious than the crash would otherwise have caused: facial fractures, brain injuries, chest and spinal trauma. Legally, nothing happens automatically. No one investigates the airbag unless you or your attorney asks for it, and the insurance company handling the crash has no reason to raise it.
What can I do if my airbags didn’t deploy?
Start by getting examined, then secure the vehicle. Tell your insurer in writing not to repair, sell, or salvage it. Photograph the interior and the damage, check your VIN for open recalls, and write down whether the airbag light was on before the crash. Then have a lawyer review it before you sign anything. A review costs nothing, and it is the only way to find out whether the non-deployment was normal for your crash or a failure someone should answer for.
How fast do you have to be going for airbags to deploy?
There is no single speed. Airbags respond to how quickly the vehicle slows down, not the number on the speedometer. NHTSA describes the general threshold for frontal airbags as a crash equal to hitting a solid barrier at about 8 to 14 mph or higher, which is comparable to striking a similar-sized parked car at roughly 16 to 28 mph or higher. Angle, what you hit, and whether the seat is occupied all change the result. A 40 mph sideswipe may not trigger a frontal bag. A 20 mph hit into a concrete barrier might.
Who do I sue if my airbag didn’t deploy?
It depends on what failed. Possible defendants include the vehicle manufacturer, the company that made the airbag module, sensor, or inflator, the dealership that sold the car, and a repair shop that skipped or botched an airbag replacement after an earlier crash. In Nevada, a company held liable for a defective product can be responsible for the full amount of your damages, not just a share. Identifying the right defendants takes an inspection, which is one more reason the vehicle has to be preserved.
You Don’t Have to Know What Failed to Find Out If You Have a Case
Right now you may only know two things: the crash was bad, and the airbag did nothing. That is enough to start.
Howard Injury Law is a Las Vegas personal injury firm, and our motor vehicle accident lawyers in Las Vegas handle cases against drivers and manufacturers alike. Glen Howard is a Nevada attorney who used to defend insurance companies. He now uses that experience for the people they pay.
The first step is simple. Tell us where the car is. If it is sitting in a tow yard or about to go to salvage, we can move to preserve it while a Las Vegas vehicle defect lawyer reviews what happened. The consultation is free, and there is no fee unless we win.
Call (702) 331-5722 or request a free case review.
This article is general information about Nevada law, not legal advice for your situation. Every case turns on its own facts.
