Accident - I was injured by the airbag

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Robert Briggs

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Minnesota
it seems odd to me that people can sue for the most frivolous reasons, but someone with a legitimate injury can't seem to find a lawyer that does anything but yawn at my story.

Long story short - I was in an auto accident where I was cited for being at fault - running a red light and hitting another vehicle in the intersection. I doubt this took place - my memory of the accident has completely disappeared, but that isn't the point.

The airbag deployed with such force that it caused me a head injury bad enough that the trauma center had to do MRIs to make certain that were no internal brain bleeding associated with the injury. In addition, the deploying airbag lacerated my face, eye, and cornea and caused nerve damage due to swelling from the impact. It was three weeks before I could open my left eye, another 3 weeks after that before the pupil in my eye would respond to light and constrict. I can't and probably will never be able to focus that eye again.

Also, the bottom dash panel of my 2003 PT Dream Cruiser (from underneath the dashboard) popped loose hitting me in the leg, shattering my kneecap, rupturing my patellar tendon and ripping up the other ligaments in the area of my knee.

I have long since exceeded the $20K that the no fault insurance coverage pays and am facing mounting medical bills. My eye, eyesight and leg have been permanently damaged. I will probably never be able to walk normally again. I will never regain normal vision in my left eye.

Do I really have no recourse against the air bag or vehicle manufacturer? Or is it, like the attorneys I have contacted to date seem to think, that I'm just S.O.L. ?
 
Are you a short person (under 5'4")? Or do you drive with your seat as close to the steering wheel as you can get it?
The severity of injury seemed to be directly related to the proximity of the driver to the rapidly inflating airbag. It is important, therefore, that the driver's seat should be as far away from the steering wheel as possible, with the necessary pedal modification for short people (ie, a higher pedal).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2360902/pdf/postmedj00092-0009.pdf
 
No - I'm tall (6'1") with long legs. In every vehicle I've ever driven, I have to drive with the seat moved as far towards the back of the vehicle as it will go. And, I'm extremely uncomfortable driving sub-compacts - they all seem to have insufficient head and leg room.
 
I was the only one injured in the accident, none of the auto's glass even broke, and none of the other three people in the vehicles suffered any injuries. I'm not certain what more serious injury might have prevented - the seat belt did an adequate job of making certain that I wasn't thrown forward.

The only blood shed by anyone involved in the accident was mine, all over the airbag, from ripping up my face and eye. This doesn't seem like reasonable behavior for the device.
 
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