NHTSA, the United States government’s highway safety agency, recently announced an investigation into GM vehicles following complaints that airbags did not inflate during a crash. To date, there have been 15 complaints of airbag malfunctions, 6 crashes and 8 injuries. The accidents are described as having “significant frontal collision damage where driver frontal airbags failed to deploy.”
NHTSA said the investigation covers around 750,000 vehicles from the 2020-21 model years. Most are pickup trucks and SUVs:
- Chevrolet Silverado
- GMC Sierra
- Chevrolet Tahoe
- Chevrolet Suburban
- GMC Yukon
- Cadillac Escalade
- Cadillac CT4
- Cadillac CT5
- Cadillac XT4
According to NHTSA, GM issued a service bulletin to dealers about the problem in March, but there has not been a recall. The bulletin says rust particles can accumulate on a driver’s side airbag connection terminal. That can cause the airbag malfunction light to come on and could stop the airbags from inflating. GM said it is cooperating with the investigation, but issued a statement contradicting NHTSA’s complaints and said that GM is not aware of airbags failing to inflate due to this problem.
If you or someone you know has been injured as the result of an accident in which the airbag in a 2020-21 Chevrolet, Cadillac or GMC failed to deploy, contact an attorney at Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner by calling 713-222-7211 or toll free at 1‑800-870-9584