Seatbelt Failures

Injury Due to Defective Seatbelts

While seatbelts are designed to keep you secure and inside the vehicle at all times, especially during an accident, this isn't always the case. In a typical rollover, a properly designed and working seatbelt safety restraint system is essential for survival. But sometimes during an accident, a seatbelt can unlatch and allow a passenger to be thrown about the vehicle without any protection, or ejected, and exposed to potentially deadly forces.

It's undeniable that seatbelts have saved thousands of lives. With mandatory usage laws, more Americans are now buckling up compared to past years. Consequently, more seatbelt design flaws are becoming exposed. The most common design defects and failures involve seat belt buckles unintentionally unlatch during a collision, shoulder belts that allow too much slack (window shade seatbelt design), shoulder belt retractors that fail to hold under load, automatic or door mounted seatbelts that kill and maim when the door opens during a crash, shoulder-only belt strangulations and neck injuries, and dangerous lap-only backseat belts.

When a seatbelt fails, you might "dive" in to the roof or front of the vehicle. This force can cause the cervical vertebrae to fracture, instead of burst like in a roof crush injury. The results are equally severe and can lead to paralysis and death. This "diving" into the roof during a rollover can be prevented to great extent with properly designed and working seatbelt systems.

The federal government established the first motor vehicle seatbelt safety standards in the 1960s. During this time rollover crashes represented a small percentage of vehicle accidents. Today, however, rollover fatalities account for more than 10,000 deaths a year.

The number of rollover accidents has increased as more Americans are purchasing light trucks and SUVs. Sales figures show that light trucks now account for half of all new vehicles sold, yet are significantly more prone to rollover accidents because of their high centers of gravity. In an effort to counter research and criticism, automakers routinely blame rollover deaths on the passenger-who they say are not wearing a seatbelt, despite seatbelt use at historical highs.

Government safety data and accident reports by consumer protection groups invalidate those claims. Studies show that nearly 2,000 of the 10,000-plus passengers who were killed in rollover accidents were indeed wearing their seatbelts. In addition, about 1,000 of these people were either partly or completely ejected from the vehicle.

A seatbelt defect may apply if:

• You believe your seatbelt was fastened before the accident, but found yourself un-belted afterward.
• Your seatbelt buckle was latched after the accident, but you were ejected, landing outside the belt.
• You were belted, but contacted the vehicle's interior, and were injured as a result.
• The seat belt webbing is lose or pulled out after the accident
• You were injured, but the compartment around you is intact.

If you or a loved one was injured or killed in a rollover accident, and you believe a seatbelt failure is the cause, please contact our qualified attorneys today.