Airbag Injuries Alleged to Have Caused Girl's Blindness

Eckington, UKShe is just 16, and yet Kelly Green is having to completely revise her daily routine and indeed, her life now that she can no longer see. When her father's BMW in which she was a passenger hit a pothole and flipped onto its roof, the deploying airbags were supposed to protect the occupants from catastrophic injury. Instead, airbag injuries took away Kelly's sight literally days before her 16th birthday.

According to various reports, including United Press International (UPI 8/9/12) and the Yorkshire Post (8/10/12), the teenager was a passenger in a car driven by her father. It had been raining and the road was wet. On a road near Sheffield, the car suddenly hit a deep pothole before striking the center median (referenced as the central reservation in the UK), before flipping upside down.

The two front airbags deployed, with the passenger airbag striking the teen directly in the eyes.

Hypothetically, in this case an airbag failure might have been welcomed, as it would have spared the teen her sight.

However, in this case the passenger side airbag is alleged to have been the cause of her eye injuries. The airbag injury lawyer who is handling the family's airbag lawsuit—not unlike other airbag lawsuits—says in The Post report that there is little doubt the airbag served as the cause of Kelly's injuries.

UPI reports the passenger side airbag deployed directly into Kelly's eyes. The sight in her right eye could not be saved, "and her left eye doesn't look promising," said Bev Green, Kelly's mother, in comments published in The Post. "She will be having further surgery and we are hoping there could be a chance that one day she will regain the sight in that eye."

Doctors have told the family Kelly will require the services of a seeing-eye dog. The airbag injuries caused her to permanently lose her sight. Kelly is reported to be in the throes of learning how to read Braille, the universal language for the sightless.

"I remember the car hitting something and then somebody opening the door, holding my head and asking if I was OK," Kelly, 16, said in comments published in The Post. "When I came 'round in hospital I remember trying to open my eyes but they were stitched together.

"I was upset when I was told I'd lost my sight. I didn't know what to think."

Airbags have become a staple in automobiles and other vehicles since they were first developed as a means to supplement lap and shoulder belts in preventing catastrophic injury. However, while airbags have proven their worth in such situations, the speed and ferocity at which they deploy has been known to cause many injuries they were designed to prevent.

This is especially true for children and small adults. There have been some deaths. Efforts to decelerate airbags have helped, but have not managed to reverse the problem—and now there are airbags surrounding a car's occupants: side airbags, side curtain airbags and so on. The Chevrolet Cruise, for example, has no fewer than 10.

It has been reported that Kelly is moving on in her life, and is proving an inspiration to her family and those around her. However, the sweet 16-year-old has already endured five surgical procedures, and there are more to follow, according to her father.