An automotive engineering expert witness discusses side airbag safety systems in a double fatality car accident. The victims were traveling in a ten-year-old truck along a rural highway at 2 a.m. when a vehicle coming the opposite direction at high speed crossed the center line, striking the driver’s side front fender of their truck. The impact caused the truck to lift into the air. The other car then struck the left rear wheel with enough force to dislodge the axle. The truck then flipped onto the driver’s side and onto the truck occupants who had been thrown from the driver’s window.
Families of the two victims sued the other driver and the manufacturer of the truck for negligence and wrongful death. Against the manufacturer, the plaintiffs allege that the ejection was the primary cause of the deaths and that they could have been prevented if the truck had been equipped with safety features such as a side curtain air bag and window glazing, both of which were available as early as five years before the truck was manufactured.
The family of the passenger victim also sued the truck driver for negligence, as he had been drinking and should have avoided the collision.
