Hearing Loss from Georgia Car Accidents: Airbag Deployment Injuries

Published Read 6 min read

On this page

An airbag that inflates in a crash releases a brief, intense pressure wave, and published medical reports have linked deployment to ear injuries, including a perforated eardrum, hearing loss, ringing in the ears, and balance problems, while describing such injuries as rarely reported. In Georgia, a hearing injury from a deployed airbag can be part of the claim against the driver whose negligence caused the crash, and, where the airbag itself was defective, part of a product claim against its manufacturer. Either way, the claim turns on medical records that document the ear injury and on proof that the deployment caused it.

How an Airbag Can Injure the Ear

A 2012 case report in Case Reports in Otolaryngology, by Ohki, Ishikawa, and Tahara, describes airbag deployment as producing a brief, intense pressure wave and names three presumed ways it can hurt the ear: acoustic trauma, rupture of an inner ear window when a blow to the ear deflects it, and a concussion of the inner ear. The injuries the report lists as reported after deployment are tympanic membrane (eardrum) perforation, conductive hearing loss, tinnitus, disequilibrium, and sensorineural hearing loss. It describes ear injury from deployment as rarely reported and cites earlier reports, including a 1999 series by McFeely and colleagues.

Loud sound alone can do damage. MedlinePlus states that “sounds that are too loud or loud sounds over a long time are harmful” and that “[t]hey can damage sensitive structures of the inner ear and cause noise-induced hearing loss.”

The Two Kinds of Hearing Loss

MedlinePlus describes two main types of hearing loss. Of the type that happens when the inner ear or the auditory nerve is damaged, it states: “This type is usually permanent.” Of the type that happens when sound waves cannot reach the inner ear, it states: “Earwax buildup, fluid, or a punctured eardrum can cause it,” and that “[t]reatment or surgery can often reverse this kind of hearing loss.” The injuries reported after airbag deployment fall on both sides of that line: a perforated eardrum belongs to the second kind, damage to the inner ear to the first.

Tinnitus appears on the same list of reported injuries. MedlinePlus states that “[t]innitus is often described as a ringing in the ears,” that it “also can sound like roaring, clicking, hissing, or buzzing,” and that “[p]eople with severe tinnitus may have trouble hearing, working or even sleeping.”

Documenting the Injury

In the 2012 case report, a driver noticed fullness and ringing in one ear after a collision. Tympanometry and pure-tone audiometry documented hearing loss at the higher frequencies, and the hearing partly recovered after steroid treatment. Those two kinds of record, notes of symptoms that began after the crash and test results that measure the loss, are the facts and data on which a medical witness’s opinion about the cause would rest.

Proving That the Deployment Caused the Loss

MedlinePlus lists heredity, diseases such as ear infections and meningitis, trauma, certain medicines, long-term exposure to loud noise, and aging among the possible causes of hearing loss. When a defendant points to one of those other causes, the link to the airbag becomes a medical question. The Supreme Court of Georgia held in Cowart v. Widener, 287 Ga. 622 (2010), that expert evidence is required where tying the injury to the defendant’s conduct calls for specialized medical knowledge rather than knowledge within common understanding and experience. An expert’s opinion must rest on sufficient facts or data and on reliable principles and methods reliably applied to the case (OCGA 24-7-702(b)).

Who Answers for the Injury

The driver who caused the crash. Georgia allows recovery of damages that follow legally and naturally from the wrongful act, even when they are contingent to some degree (OCGA 51-12-9). When another driver’s negligence caused the collision, the question for an ear injury from the airbag that deployed in it is whether the injury is that kind of result of the crash.

The airbag’s manufacturer. The manufacturer of personal property sold as new is liable in tort to an injured person when the product was not merchantable and reasonably suited to its intended use when sold and that condition was the proximate cause of the injury (OCGA 51-1-11(b)(1)). A claim that the design itself was defective is decided under the risk-utility analysis the Supreme Court of Georgia adopted in Banks v. ICI Americas, Inc., 264 Ga. 732 (1994), which weighs a design’s risks against its usefulness; an injury from a deploying airbag does not by itself show that the design was defective.

For example, imagine a driver whose airbag deploys when another car runs a red light and strikes the driver’s car, and who notices muffled hearing and ringing in one ear that evening. The claim against the other driver would need a record of those symptoms, hearing tests that measure the loss, and, if the cause is disputed, a medical witness who meets OCGA 24-7-702(b). A claim against the airbag’s maker would add the separate question of whether the airbag was defective.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can an airbag perforate an eardrum?
Tympanic membrane perforation is among the injuries the 2012 case report lists as reported after airbag deployment, and MedlinePlus lists a punctured eardrum among the causes of the type of hearing loss in which sound waves cannot reach the inner ear.

Is hearing loss after an airbag deployment permanent?
It depends on the type. MedlinePlus states that hearing loss from damage to the inner ear or auditory nerve “is usually permanent,” while treatment or surgery “can often reverse” the type caused by a problem such as a punctured eardrum. In the 2012 case report, the driver’s hearing partly recovered after treatment.

Do untreated hearing problems get worse?
MedlinePlus states that “[u]ntreated, hearing problems can get worse” and lists hearing aids, cochlear implants, special training, certain medicines, and surgery among the possible treatments.

Is there a time limit for a claim against the airbag’s maker?
Yes, apart from the general filing period. An action under the product statute is barred if brought more than ten years after the product was first sold for use or consumption (OCGA 51-1-11(b)(2)), and the same limit reaches negligence claims against a manufacturer, with exceptions for products that cause a disease or birth defect and for conduct showing a willful, reckless, or wanton disregard for life or property (OCGA 51-1-11(c)).

  • Ohki, Ishikawa, and Tahara, “Sensorineural Hearing Loss due to Air Bag Deployment,” Case Reports in Otolaryngology (2012)
  • MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine, “Hearing Disorders and Deafness”; “Tinnitus”; “Noise”
  • Cowart v. Widener, 287 Ga. 622 (2010); OCGA 24-7-702(b)
  • OCGA 51-12-9
  • OCGA 51-1-11(b)(1), (b)(2), (c); Banks v. ICI Americas, Inc., 264 Ga. 732 (1994)

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about hearing loss and about the Georgia statutes that bear on a claim over it. It is not legal or medical advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. The medical descriptions come from general health topic pages and a published case report and do not describe any reader’s injury or recovery. Anyone with hearing loss or tinnitus after a crash should seek medical care and consult a licensed Georgia attorney promptly about the particular situation.

Related posts:

  1. Airport Shuttle Accidents: Hotel and Transit Van Claims The claim of a passenger hurt in an airport shuttle or a hotel van depends on the duty Georgia law places on a carrier of passengers and on who operated......
  2. Rental Car Accidents: Who Pays When You Crash a Rental? Someone hurt in a crash involving a rented car faces an owner that was not driving: the rental company, which a federal statute shields from claims based only on ownership,......
  3. Georgia’s 50% Bar Rule: How Comparative Negligence Affects Your Claim Georgia's 50 percent bar decides whether an injured person's award shrinks or disappears. If the trier of fact finds the injured person less than 50 percent responsible, the judge reduces......
  4. Swimming Pool Accidents in Georgia Who answers for a pool injury or drowning in Georgia depends on who the injured person was and what kind of pool it was. An invited guest or tenant is......
  5. Fireworks Injury Claims in Georgia Who answers for a fireworks injury in Georgia depends on who controlled the risk: the person who lit the device, the operator of a permitted public display, or the company......
  6. Uninsured Motorist Claims: Protecting Yourself When They Have No Coverage When the driver who caused a crash has no liability insurance, the injured person's own auto policy may answer instead, but only through a statute with its own definitions, a......
  7. Filing a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Georgia Superior Court A personal injury case becomes a lawsuit at a precise moment, and several Georgia statutes govern what follows: the filing itself, who may serve the papers and within what time,......
  8. Internal Bleeding and Organ Damage from Georgia Accidents Abdominal, pelvic, groin, neck, and chest wounds "can be very serious because of the possibility of severe internal bleeding," MedlinePlus states, and they "may not look very serious, but can......
  9. Rear-End Collisions: Who Is Really At Fault? After a rear-end crash, fault is not settled by which car was in back: Georgia has no rule that the rear driver is presumed to be at fault. A collision......
  10. Exercise Equipment Injuries in Georgia: Treadmill and Weight Machine Defects Exercise equipment raises questions that other products may not: the machine may not be in use when someone is hurt, its risks may be visible to anyone who looks, and......
  11. School Bus Accidents: Protecting Injured Children A school bus injury claim in Georgia turns on who the defendant is. A school district is a government body whose immunity from suit can be waived only by law;......
  12. College Campus Injury Claims in Georgia Whether a college is public or private decides which statutes govern an injury on its campus. A claim against a state institution runs through the Georgia Tort Claims Act, with......
  13. Boating and Watercraft Accident Claims in Georgia In a civil claim, Georgia's statutes treat a boat much as they treat a car: the owner of a watercraft "shall be liable for any tort caused by the operation......
  14. Aviation Accident Claims in Georgia: Pursuing Compensation for Plane Crashes and Air Travel Injuries After a plane crash, federal law decides several things a Georgia claim can and cannot do. Courts disagree over whether federal law supplies the standard of care in aviation safety.......
  15. Spinal Cord Injury Claims in Georgia: Seeking Justice for Paralysis and Permanent Disability A person left paralyzed or permanently impaired by a spinal cord injury may face decades of future care, and a Georgia claim has to turn that care into a figure......
  16. Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death in Georgia: When Healthcare Negligence Proves Fatal A death caused by medical negligence in Georgia combines two sets of rules, and neither relaxes for the other. The malpractice side requires an expert affidavit filed with the complaint......

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *