Our practice > Air Bags and Sun Visors - A Dangerous Combination?

You expect your air bags to protect you from injury during an accident. You expect to be able to use your sun visor to shield your eyes from the bright glare of the sun. However, in some vehicles, the combination of deploying air bags and in-use sun visors can have dangerous consequences, including blinding you. This page describes those dangers in some of those vehicles.

The Accident

A young man was driving a 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse in a rural area. Because the sun was setting on the horizon, the passenger had her sun visor down to shield her eyes. As the car turned slowly into a Little League parking lot, its left front wheel struck a small post in the center of the driveway that had been obscured by dust kicked up by other cars. Despite the low speed, and despite the lack of any damage to the front bumper or front end, the air bags deployed.

As the passenger air bag deployed, it slammed into the passenger’s sun visor (sun shade), smashing it apart and sending it flying. As a result, our client was hit in the face and was blinded in one eye. As you can see from the photograph, the sun visor remained attached to the car by only a single strand of wire, since the air bag smashed it off its attachments.

The force from the deploying air bag was so strong, that it ripped a jagged metal insert from inside the sun visor right through the visor’s plastic shell.  The force was also strong enough to shatter the vanity mirror that was part of the sun visor.

Given this dangerous interaction between the air bag and the sun visor, and given the devastating injury that it caused, it is not surprising that there was blood on the surface of the air bag.

Our Testing

To determine whether the passenger air bag was designed in a way that allowed it to rip the sun visor off during deployment when the visor was being used, we tested another 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse at an independent air bag test facility. For the testing, we used both real-time video cameras and very sophisticated high-speed cameras. This high-speed video of the testing allowed us to capture the passenger air bag / sun visor interaction in great detail, and to clearly document how the air bag rips the sun visor off its attachments.

The following chronology demonstrates how dangerous the air bag / sun visor interaction can be, as the air bag sends the sun visor flying right through the area where a passenger’s face would be, over the headrest, and into the back of the car:

In every one of our tests, the passenger air bag smashed into the sun visor, ripped it off its attachments, and sent it flying through the cabin of the car, where it could pose a danger to the passengers.

Although this accident, and the testing we conducted, was in a 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse, other cars are also at risk for the same danger. For example, our investigation has revealed the following cars sold in the United States all use the same or substantially similar passenger air bags and passenger sun visors as the ones we tested that demonstrated the danger:

• 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 Mitsubishi Eclipse
• 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder
• 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 Dodge Stratus
• 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 Chrysler Sebring

Although other cars may use different air bags or different sun visors, that does not necessarily mean that they are free from danger. For example, some other vehicles may also have a passenger air bag that deploys upward, along the windshield, and that can strike a sun visor that is being used. At the same time, some other vehicles may have sun visors that are not specifically designed to stay together after being hit by an air bag.  In fact, recent testing has demonstrated that the passenger air bags in other vehicles are likely to strike the sun visor during deployment, break it apart, and sending the pieces flying through the passenger compartment to the back seat area.  This can cause injury not only to the front passenger, but also to children and others who are sitting in back.

It takes someone with experience to evaluate whether your air bag was defective, and whether it caused or contributed to your injuries.  Because each vehicle and each accident is different, I can help you determine whether your air bags deployed properly in your accident, or whether they are defective. As an air bag attorney, as a former air bag engineer for General Motors, and as a court-recognized air bag expert, I have nearly 20 years of experience in analyzing air bag system performance.  During those years, I have personally conducted hundreds of air bag tests, including crash tests and sled tests. If your air bag system is defective and you have a case, I would be honored to pursue justice for you.