Burn injuries due to air bag deployment

An NHTSA Engineering Analysis into Ford vehicles. Closed 15 August 2003.

Investigation
EA02017
Type
Engineering Analysis
Opened
16 August 2002
Closed
15 August 2003

What NHTSA investigated

All of the consumer complaints allege an incident in which deployment of the driver frontal air bag caused some type of burn injury.most of these injuries are due to contact and/or abrasion with the air bag and are of relatively minor to moderate severity.it is possible that some drivers may have sustained burn injuries to the skin as a result of hot gases exhausting from the vents of the air bags in the subject vehicles, but the number of such incidents appears to be low.further details of the investigation are contained in subsequent pages of this report.based on the above, further expenditure of agency resources on this investigation does not appear to be warranted.the closing of this investigation does not constitute a finding by NHTSA that a safety-related defect does not exist.the agency may take further action if warranted by the circumstances.

Vehicles covered

MakeModelModel years
FordFOCUS2000–2001

Source

From NHTSA’s investigation file, rebuilt daily. To report a problem with your own vehicle, go to nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem. All open investigations.