Seat belts are meant to protect us from injury. But a defective seat belt which fails mechanically or which is designed defectively can cause serious injuries in an auto accident. A defective seat belt can be worse than not wearing one at all, even though failure to wear a seat belt is responsible for thousands of deaths a year.

Lap-belt only seat belts, for instance, can fail in their government-imposed duty to "remain on the pelvis under all conditions, including collision or roll-over of the motor vehicle." FMVSS 209S.4.1(b). In a rear-end auto accident, an occupant restrained by a lap-belt only can slide up and backwards away from the lap-belt and out through a window. In a front-end car accident, the occupant can submarine down and forward, exposing the neck or spinal cord to serious injury.Other seat belt injuries are the result of inertial releases and mechanical component failures, which can cause the seat belt to release during a car accident. Additionally, if the seat belt anchor is not properly placed, it may not effectively prevent the passenger from moving towards the roof during a rollover. Furthermore, defects in the retractor of the seatbelt may also cause safety issues because it may result in slack in the seat belt, thereby allowing the passenger too much movement in the seat, which can lead to injuries in the event of a crash.

The design of an estimated 16 million seat belts has recently been brought into question. Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization, has gathered reports attributing 14 deaths and 19 serious injuries to the unlatching of GM's Gen-3 seat belts. The design of the seat belt features a slightly protruding release button, which is more likely to be inadvertently opened by passengers flailing during a rollover than belts with a flush button. The Gen-3 seat belt was replaced with a Gen-4 on the Dodge Durango and Dodge Dakota, but remains standard on many other models.

Defective Seat Belt Lawsuits - seat belt cause deaths

The Crashworthiness Litigators represented the Estate of K.F. in an action involving the design of a vehicle. The vehicle had been designed and equipped with a shoulder harness and lap belt that were not integrated, meaning that although the shoulder harness automatically engaged when the occupant shut the door, the lap belt had to be manually secured. K.F. was an 11-year-old girl sitting in the front passenger seat. The Crashworthiness Litigators had gathered evidence that the manufacturer knew that occupants – especially youngsters – were prone to ignore or to forget about the manual lap belt and rely on the shoulder harness alone. This reliance lulls the user into a false sense of security, because a front end collision can cause the occupant to "submarine" under the shoulder harness, which can result in fatal neck injuries. An integrated seat belt system solves the problem of ignoring or forgetting about the manual lap belt. The case settled for a confidential sum.

The crashworthiness litigators currently represent a woman who was permanently and seriously injured in an accident involving a 1992 small sport utility vehicle. This case, currently in litigation, involves allegations of a Takata seatbelt that failed in a foreseeable accident. As a result of the seatbelt failure, our client was ejected through the canvass roof. Her injuries include a scalp avulsion and terrible orthopedic injuries which have left her permanently disabled.

Seat belt deaths due to faulty seat belt deployment

The design of an estimated 16 million seat belts has recently been brought into question. Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization, has gathered reports attributing 14 deaths and 19 serious injuries to the unlatching of GM's Gen-3 seat belts. The design of the seat belt features a slightly protruding release button, which is more likely to be inadvertently opened by passengers flailing during a rollover than belts with a flush button. The Gen-3 seat belt was replaced with a Gen-4 on the Dodge Durango and Dodge Dakota, but remains standard on many other models.

If you have any questions about defective seat belt related injuries or deaths, please feel free to contact the auto accident attorneys at Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg, and Jeck. P.C..