OnPoint

Man that sucks. Sorry to hear about this, and hope you heal up ok.

Hopefully your insurance company is stepping up to the plate and taking care of both you (which is most important) and the car's replacement/value etc.

I don't have anything to add to the above, but as also mentioned, may not be any fault or defect re the vette.

Good luck with all of it.

Carver Electrics

Great points..

ruxvette

Sorry to hear of your injuries and I hope you are on the road to a speedy recovery. You might want to consider contacting an accident reconstructionist (like Society of Accident Reconstructionists or a similiar group). Get an expert opinion on what would/could/should have happened.
Best of luck in your recovery.

Gearhead Jim

Someone posted that GM has taken the legal position that any design defects that were "created" before the bankruptcy, were "discharged" by the bankruptcy and can not be the basis of a suit today. The story is they have used that argument to get out of claims for defective frames on some of the other cars; their only liability is for the 3/36 or whatever warranty in effect when the car was sold.

But as others have said, a good attorney is the person to see.

OnPoint

No, they've taken on pre-BR general liability, including claims of design defects.

The legal position they've taken is to argue the firm can't be exposed to punitive damages. Chrysler got that language expressly in their deal. GM didn't, but is arguing such is "implied" as a result of the structure of the transactions and/or appropriate on public policy grounds (i.e. punitives used to deter/punish should not be used on a "new entity").

SolidlyStated

where did it say windshield?

EVRose

His head hit the door glass, not the windshield.

Gearhead Jim

Thanks!

obxchartercaptain

So sorry for your accident. We have met many times at shows. I hope your injuries heal fast. I have nothing to add except...this is what those lawyers who take out full page ad's in the phone book live for. Good Luck.

rayk

Accidents are accidents. Agreed. No one wants an accident.

People die in accidents buckled up and with airbags deployed. I have no idea how the car is designed to trigger airbag deployment.

If it was me that was injured and I thought it was a system failure, I would get a lawyer to look into it.

wwwFLA

Sorry it happened. Do not give up hope. You are on the road to recovery. Prayers are with you.

Mike V.

We can go 'round & 'round w/ the silliness. I will not reply anymore.

Specifically, someone asked what type of info was I was seeking. Basically:

1. has anyone had personal experience with a side impact where airbag did/did not deploy. If so, would they mind posting the particulars.

2. I'm sure there's a check down algorhythem, i.e. specific weight met by seat occupant (my other car when I throw my briefcase in the front seat it senses the weight of a small child, thus disables & a warning light goes on), seatbelt buckled, door closed, etc. So any info here may be helpful.

3. What eactly triggers sensor, I find it hard to believe it has more to do w/ a direct hit, but rather meeting the algorhythem and a specific G-Force caused by an impact from a specific direction.

We need not worry about the particulars of how it happened, but rather what happended. Because i was knocked unconscious I cannot with 100% accuracy the specifics, but based memory leading up & looking at the after effects the particulars are as follows.

1. I had just accelerated onto highway and shifted to 2nd (6MN) so at max rpm, that's around 40mph. May have accelerated 10 more mph b/f had to take avasive manuver. Quick left, probably 1/4 turn to avoid dog, then quick right to avoid flt shoulder, gravel, grass median

2. Left rear tire hook weak shoulder, hooking the car perpindicular to road, car as best I can guess slid completely into grass striking cement highway lamp.

3. My stature is 5'7" 185 w/ 33" waist, point being thick & pretty muscled through chest & shoulders & given height low in seat. Pole struck veh., guessing 90* right at gas filler. Broad shoulders mahe contact w/ door & elbow on armrest hand at wheel. Point, body is already in contact w/ inner door panel in normal seated pos.

4. Force of impact caused main mass (chest & shoulders) to strike door w/ sufficient force to rip lock latch of fiberglass door jamb. BTW, newer models have a heavy internal latch seen on vrtually all cars. Front hinges gave way as well.

5. Simultaneously neck whiplashed, head striking window which disintergrated as auto glass does.

6. Forward momentum caused veh. to semi right itself in initial direction and come to rest 30-40 ft, from pole still in median.

7. Car total loss. Have both auto & health insurnace. Slow to recover accident took place 2/15.

I'm simply trying to ascertain if the airbag should have deployed, cannot say definitively, but given airbag proximatey & injuries, intuitively one wouls think injuries may been lessoned/avoided.

I feel this is a question worth asking. Tramatic brain injuries don't heal, they are managed, neck injury may be possibly corrected surgically.

So that's it in a nutshell. I'm am awre of the legal route, but honestly I am trying to educate myself on the SRS for now to understand what happened. My injuries are permenant and treatment on-going, so I have no idea where I'll be in 6 weeks, 6 mos., 6 years.

Feel free to respond w/ questions specific to the accident. Please no more wudda, cudda, shudda, or judgemental replies. I seeking facts thats all. Thanks to all who have passed on well wishes and insightful info.

DStarr02

I really doubt it was a sensor failure as there is checks in process that will throw a air bag light, also even if they go off G's, you don't want the airbag to go off because you slide and catch a curb, so there's probably a substantial amount of force required to set it off, plus if it was hit off center or at any angle at all, the force on a directional sensor would be reduced exponentially.

No one wants an airbag to go off just because the are auto crossing, but everyone thinks they should go off for any accident. It just isn't that simple.

99% chance is other than just trying to make money because you can there is probably not good reason to sue anyone other than the dogs owner.

phileaglesfan

I'm sorry to hear about your accident and injuries.
Best to seek a good lawyer's advice. I personally don't think GM screwed up by what you said. If anything their design may have saved your life as a 40mph hit is a real big one. If your car was designed in the 80-90s you would probably be dead right now. Most of today's cars do a great job of getting rid of the energy of an accident. Sometimes I think people believe a car should protect them in all accidents but that is not the case.

RACE U

I agree. I had a very bad accident in 2009 with my vette (almost $20k to fix) and it was my fault. I got distracted, and rammed into the back of a SUV. The airbags did not deploy then, which surprised me.

However, after peeling back the fiberglass, it was obvious what happened. When I hit the car in front of me, I moved to the left and the point of impact was between the front side marker light and the front wheel.

The air bags are designed to deploy in a direct head-on or direct side impact crash. There are 5 (or maybe six) sensors that are located on the front of support for the front end. None of these sensors were hit.

The rationale for not putting the sensors in the location where I incurred the impact is the car itself probably absorbs a great deal of the energy generated.

I do not know enough to make a educated opinion on whether there should have been more sensors, but the airbag deploying has severe health risks to the driver and passenger.

Hope you get better soon.

jschindler

If you are talking about the airbag in the steering wheel, I agree with what others said - why would it go off if the impact was from the side (which it obviously was if your head went through the side window). If I have miss read something and am not understanding correctly I apologize.

Best of luck in your recovery.

mcandrew67

I believe he is referring to the side impact airbag.

I had a frontal crash at the track last year. My front airbags didn't deploy, I was going prob 40 MPH. I hit a tire wall front drivers side.
What we discovered was, when some of the tires went under the car, presumable first, it pulled the wires off the front sensor, so not deploying airbags.
Sometimes, things like that happen. Did they notice if the sensor was intact after the accident?
Sorry for your accident, thoughts are with you for a good recovery

David

jschindler

David, I wondered about that, but I didn't know if a 2005 vert had side impact bags. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure of the years, but I guess that the 1LT did not (in the seats) but the other models did.

Ooops, just went back and re-read his first post - it does say it has them. My mistake.

Magilla

No answers to your questions but I wanted to wish you well in your recovery.

EDinPA

This was your answer. For some reason you rejected it. For clarification, it is not one sensor responsible for one bag. It is a complex system. Deployment requires the correct conditions to be met with input from everything including vehicle speed, throttle position, braking applied, seat belts in use, g-force meters, etc...

The data recorder is just a small part of the system. It saves a five second rolling recording of all data. Find someone that can access this data and see if one of the required sensors was not sending the correct signal.

It sounds like you are looking to sue. If so just let whatever attorney you pick take car of this. And for what it's worth, every crash is avoidable and there is always someone at fault.