Lawsuit filed on behalf of woman killed by airbag defect

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Law firm Morgan & Morgan has filed a lawsuit over a counterfeit, defective airbag that killed an Oklahoma woman.

Patricia Riggle was involved in a crash back in March. Her airbag deployed, but Morgan & Morgan say it was improperly installed resulting in it detonating like a grenade.

An airbag is suppose to protect you in a collision, but Andrew Felix with Morgan & Morgan says it is the very reason why Patricia Riggle died, and she isn't the only one.

"When she gets into this crash and the airbag deploys, it doesn't deploy like a soft cushion pillow, like it's designed to, it essentially explodes like a grenade in her steering wheel and shoots scrap metal at her face and neck at hundreds of miles an hour and ultimately takes her life," said Andrew Felix, lawyer representing the Riggle family.

On March 1 of this year, Patricia Riggle was driving a rental car from Hertz when she was involved in a crash.

"Unbeknownst to her, that vehicle had already been in prior wrecks and had been repaired with an illegal counterfeit Chinese airbag inflator," Felix said.

The overlooked detail cost Riggle her life.

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"This vehicle shouldn't have even been rented to a consumer," Felix said. "It boils down to the old adage of corporate profits over consumer safety."

Felix says Riggle was driving a 2022 Chevy Malibu that had allegedly originally been owned by rental car company Avis, and was involved in a crash that caused the front driver-side airbag to deploy.

The lawsuit alleges that after this crash, it was repaired with a cheap Chinese aftermarket part, then put up for auction ad bought by Hertz.

The lawsuit says all three companies failed to make sure the car was safe.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says defective replacement airbags are a growing problem, citing at least five similar incidents across the country in the past year.

"Any time you take that shortcut, when you take that short path to profitability over safety, you're going to start seeing these horrendous result," Felix said.

As for you, if you are looking to buy a used car, officials say you should also have the airbags inspected to see if they are genuine or replacements.