Failure of Seatbelts

Failure of Seatbelts 

We have done numerous blogs and coverage about tendencies of car to be involved in fatal accidents and how it affects victims's lives following an accident and we have showed how important wearing seatbelts all the time as one of countermeasure to prevent and avoid sustaining an injury when contact with a road car crash. Sometimes, seatbelts are imperfectly manufactured and has flaws when it comes to protecting occupants. In this blog, we will show the tendencies and consequences of a unreliable seatbelt. 

Seatbelts are issued standard by the government and best countermeasure against risks present on the road such as drunk drivers, distracted drivers, aggressived drivers, poor road conditions and unexpected pedestrians. Having yourself secured and restrained with a seatbelt protect you from momentum caused by an emergency break maybe because something showed up unnoticed and has enough time to react, this way both parties are unharmed. There are other benefits wearing a seatbelt and there are no drawbacks at all.

According to a recent report from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), seatbelts has saved almost 15,000 lives in 2017 and is drastically increasing in the following year maybe because of the new car users. Though, they are advocated to be safe, the possibility of seatbelts to be defective is still there and may fail to fulfill its purpose. According to a follow-up report done by NHTSA, an estimated cases of 3 million injuries and 40 thousand deaths were reported each year caused by faulty seatbelts where occupants of a crashing car depends on and has caused such casualties. Worst outcomes are expected, especially during rollover accidents where an expected protection of seatbelts are nonexistent. 

Here are common reasons why seatbelts fail at first place:

• Faulty Retractor  

  The retractor in the seatbelt system is responsible for restraining someone when a sudeen push happened, either because someone crash behind you or because of a sudden brake. Hence, a defective retractor won't protect you when there is an emergency about to happen and likely to receive minor to significant injuries to long term disabilities, depending on the severity of an accident. 

• Latch Feedback Failure

  A faulty latch means seatbelt won't render you to stay in place when making contact with a strong external force. Seatbelt latch looks like a lock between the lock and the seatbelt itself, it clicks when properly placed and won't come up unless pushed its eject button, but a faulty latch could let go unexpectedly when little to none force is even applied. So, in an event of an accident, a latch failure could end badly for the victims. Head injury are most expected in these types of occurence. 

• Overextention of feed or Spooling 

  Spooling refers to an overlapping amount of seatbelt feeds are drawn that it fits extra for a passenger to actually restrain and put someone in place. This also means that when someone's car hit you in the back or collide with you along road, and spooling happened, feed are not enough to prevent passenger's head to bump into something hard. 

What should a victim of car accident do?
If you have recently involved and suffered from injuries sustained in a car accident due to another’s negligence, you are recommended to immediately file for a personal injury claim. Filing a personal injury claim can help you to recover any losses you may have incurred as a result of your accident, may it be a form of physical, emotional or financial damage. Ryan LLP’s Cleveland car accident lawyer team has the experience and the skill to represent their client right after filing their claim. They have over 40 years of experience in civil litigation which makes them as a dependable lawyers at field of personal injury, medical malpractice and even wrongful death. Call our offices now for free legal consultation.