If you are unfortunate enough to cross paths with a drunk or distracted driver on the Bay Bridge, in the financial district or anywhere else in San Francisco, your risk of injury may be reduced substantially if you are wearing your seat belt. Despite the development of more sophisticated safety features including crash avoidance systems and air bags, seatbelts remain a vehicle occupant’s first line of defense in a serious car accident. However, seatbelt technology remains largely unchanged during the last two decades. When a seatbelt is defective, it can leave vehicle occupants unprotected and vulnerable to serious injury during a collision. While a negligent driver who collides with your vehicle may be liable for your injuries, the manufacturer of a seatbelt or motor vehicle may share liability when a product defect in the seatbelt causes it to fail in a collision.
When a seat belt has a defect, it can create enormous exposure to injury for vehicle occupants that have dutifully fastened their seatbelts expecting the protection that a seatbelt is supposed to provide during a collision. Defects that impact seatbelts can come in a variety of forms including problems with the weave of the belt material, issues with the latch and failure of the tension retracting system. Thousands of vehicle occupants have died because of design or manufacturing defects that have caused seatbelts to fail during serious accidents.
It may surprise many motorists to know that there are millions upon millions of vehicles on the roads today that are still utilizing seatbelt technology developed in the sixties that has long since become antiquated. These defects that make seatbelts unsafe often are not discussed because vehicle manufacturers do not want to absorb the cost of recall and repair. One large lawsuit against a major auto manufacturer included evidence that the car maker did not replace their seatbelts with updated technology because it would have increased the cost of the vehicle by less than $2 per vehicle.
While there are many types of product defects that can cause a seatbelt to leave a vehicle occupant unprotected in a San Francisco auto collision, some common examples include the following:
Defective Belt Material: The weave in a seatbelt may not be fabricated correctly causing the belt to be vulnerable to being torn or cut during a collision.
Defective Retraction Systems: When seat belts are fastened, the slack of the seat belt is supposed to retract so that the vehicle occupant is tightly secured within the belt. Sometimes these retraction devices are defective so that slack is left in the seatbelt. When seatbelts do not fully retract, it is possible for those in the front seat to be thrown forward against the steering column or dashboard resulting in traumatic brain injuries and skull fractures.
Defective Latch (False Latching): Sometimes a defect in the buckle of a seatbelt will make it feel or sound like it is fully engaged when it is not. This can cause the buckle to completely detach when subjected to the force of a collision.
Missing Middle Shoulder Belts: Many vehicle manufacturers install only lap belts in the back seat or middle seats. The lack of shoulder restraints can result in painful debilitating injuries of the head and neck.
Inertial Unlatching Defects: Outdated technology in buckling mechanisms can cause the seatbelt buckle to disengage from the force of the collision particularly in a rollover accident where vehicle occupants need seatbelts the most.
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If you are involved in a San Francisco car accident you may suffer serious injury, particularly if your seatbelt fails or some other product defect contributes to your collision. If you or someone you love has been injured or a loved one has died in a San Francisco car accident, you should contact us and speak with an experienced San Francisco car accident attorney as soon as possible because critical deadlines apply. Our San Francisco car accident attorneys invite you to contact The Law Office of Ian Zimmerman for your free initial consultation. We are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., speak Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and are available for weekend, evening, home and hospital meetings and visits. We also offer free initial consultations and work exclusively on a contingency fee basis so that you pay nothing if we don’t win your case.