My friend, against everything I ever stood for or tried to tell him, went out and bought a brand new Chevrolet truck. It's 4x4, regular cab, short bed, base model all the way except for the cd player that he had upgraded from the standard. Anyway, he goes out this past weekend on the night before his birthday, and he is cruising at around 40 miles an hour, and he hits two deer, one on the headlights and the other on the Chevrolet symbol in the middle of the grill. Now, it didn't break the lights, but it did rip them down out of place and his front bumber is just hanging there, ready to fall off at any second. He wasn't hurt, but it killed both of the deer, but I think he should sue Chevrolet because his airbags didn't come out, and he could have been killed if it had been something a little more stationary than a deer. I do understand that if it had been something more stationary, they probably would have come out, but if it hits hard enough to need an entire new bumber and new housings for the headlights and a complete new plastic-thingy that goes under the body panels on the front end, it should have come out, right? Should they have? What do y'all think?

 

I wouldn't think so. It deosn't take much to break plastic trim...

Besides he wasn't injured, and all they would have to do is point that out, and say they weren't needed, see, he's fine...

 

He saved at least $2000 for the fact that they did not deploy. There is enough r&d in these systems that if the force of the impact is going to hurt somebody the bags will go off. Otherwise, they stay intact, which is how they are designed. It would be a huge waste of time to try to sue the automaker, and you probably wouldn't find a lawyer to take the case.

 

Personally I don’t think he has a case and if someone was to take something like that to court it would seem pretty stupid in my opinion to walk in and state to a jury basically:

”Look at me, I am fine, not one scratch on me but I want to sue for millions because my airbag didn’t deploy”

Sound’s kind of stupid don’t you agree?

Airbags are designed to deploy dependant upon a certain predetermined amount of force placed on the front bumper. So it all depends on where he actually hit the deer’s. If it hit on the sides of the bumper then not enough direct force. Dependant on the deer’s weight, road conditions and how the deer’s bounced off the bumper would also play into the force of the impact.

Since your friend has no injuries it would most likely be up to him and his very well paid lawyers (if he wanted any chance at all) to prove WHY the airbags should have came out.

As was mentioned all the high paid Chevy lawyers would simple laugh and tell the jury your friend is crazy, not injured due to the design of the vehicle and he is mad that his airbags didn’t deploy.

If he had been injured it would be a completely different story. Bottom line the vehicle protected him from injury, airbags or no airbags, so again in my opinion, your friend has no case but would make a few lawyers very rich who would BS him into “trying” to sue. He would lose but lawyers NEVER lose they ALWAYS get paid…

 

If I were him I would be glad I was alive and thank the engeneers for the vehicle they designed. At least it didn't crush in to the motor and mess a lot of that stuff up. The outside bumper and surrounding area is designed to take the impact. Its a lot better than letting the frame/body take the impact. Just by chance, mabee they have sensors to detect the impact. If its not severe they wont open. That can be a good thing. you could be pulling into a parking spot, get a little to close to the person in front of you and BAM, air bag went off, now its some $$$. To me it just sounds like he's another sue happy person that needs to get a life. If I were GMC and someone sued me for that I would push it so far that he better have some damn good lawyers. In that case, I would bare no expense to prove to someone just that the company could do that.

anyway, just my II penny's.

 

He should be thankful.... When airbags deploy it's not a nice thing. People get burned , a lot people get their wrists/arms broken not to mention getting cut from the plastic covers. Yes airbags save a great amount of lives but not without other less severe injuries. It is a very violent episode.

Saved a couple grand and not a scratch, great deal to me.

 

if he wants to sue for some broken plastic that broke due to a couple deer, then i would have a case for mine not deploying when i slid into that Dodge Neon at around 15mph. It was a stationary object (and so was the car that IT hit!) It was a decent hit and moved my bumper about 1/2" towards the passenger side. What im saying is no, your buddy would have virtually no case if he sued Chevy for the failure of the airbags to deploy.

 

Of course he should not sue!

Jeez, the last thing I would want is an airbag exploding in my face at 40 mph. That's a good way to lose control and cause a SERIOUS accident.

Like Canyonslicker wrote, people can and do get hurt when the bag goes off. Broken bones, facial burns, eyeball burns, etc... The airbag can save your life in a major crash, but you DO NOT want it going off in a fender bender.

Hopefully, with improved technology the airbags will continue to get better, and they are a great safety aid, overall. But there have been plenty of horror stories about premature ejaculation, if you will.

Green_98 - if you had direct hit a parked Abrams tank at 15 mph, your bag probably would have deployed, and you would have done a lot worse to your truck than move the bumper! A parked 2,300 pound Neon is not exactly an immovable object when its getting hit by 5,000 pounds of Ford Truck

 

hehe wouldnt know about that one!..

Yes my airbags should not have deployed but still i was trying to make a point.....or something.

 

I would have thanked my lucky stars, guted both deer and took out the back straps and fried them up and then processed the deer into nice steaks and roasts....

 

I know I wouldn't want an airbag in my face at all, I have my passenger side turned off usually, and I wish I could disconnect the driver's because 4x4 and airbags don't mix!

 

My thoughts exactly!!

But I do agree with the theme of this thread...No he should not sue...He should be thankful he was not hurt and thankful he doesn't have to spend thousands of $$$ putting new airbags in his truck.