Severe perforating eye injury caused by an air bag in a traffic skid accident

Abstract

After a penetrating injury of the eye following a car accident the driver demanded accurate investigations by the Institute for Legal Medicine of Zurich concerning the security of the equipment, especially the airbag. This led to an astonishing explication of the mechanism of the injury, not without consequences for safety measures for drivers and front seat passengers in air bag equipped cars. Due to a relatively harmless accident, the driver suffered from a severe penetrating injury of the right eye after the airbag deployed. The front seat passenger, having the seat belts fastened, was not injured. The accident was investigated by the Institute of Legal Medicine of Zurich. The analysis of the accident showed that the airbag had deployed properly. The cover of the airbag showed no defects of substance. With the precise examination of the interior of the car a broken tobacco pipe came to light. In this case not the airbag itself but a tobacco pipe held in the hand by the driver during the airbag ignition caused a severe injury of the eye. This case report illustrates the hazard of having any rigid object between the occupant and the deploying air bag. In conclusion, the drivers and front seat passengers of an airbag equipped car can only profit from the considerable security gain, if they know about these risks and adapt their behaviours to the new surroundings, but also the car manufactures have to instruct the customers properly.