drivers side airbag didn't deploy

[judyangel]

Last Saturday I was in an accident where I hit a deer and then a rock wall, rolling my van over and back onto its wheels. I was lucky enough to obviously have a guardian angel looking after me because I wasn't hurt all that bad.
The problem I am having now is two-fold... first of all, I am almost positive I put my seatbelt on, but the officer says there is no way I had it on and I was ejected into the back seat of the van. Secondly, my passenger side airbag deployed, but my drivers did not. My windshield bears a nice imprint of my face.
The vehicle was a 1997 Grand Caravan and the clock spring recall had been addressed and fixed.
Has anyone else had any problems with seatbelts or the wrong side airbag deploying?
Also, who do I contact about this? The dealership that I had the recall fixed at or Chrysler?
Thanks for reading.
Judy

[Allamand]

Call a lawyer, IMO

My wife lost her eye because a seatbelt broke, I don't beleive in most lawsuits, but in cases like these, they need to get taken back a step.

Also glad to see your alright now.

[judyangel]

My seatbelt did not show any signs of being broken...it looked as though I did not have it on at all, but I am sure I put it on before pulling out of my driveway.
Thank you for your reply.

[caravanbob]

A couple of things...
Unless you're an engineer, don't trust your self or anyone else who's not an engineer to determine if the seatbelt failed. You don't know what to look for, or how to look for it. If you feel that there may have been a failure, then contact an attorney who will hire an engineer. Do this before the vehicle gets handled too much, or the evidence will be spoiled and you'll have no recourse.
Secondly, I'm a career firefighter, and it's been my experience that seatbelts very, very rarely fail. I cannot recall a passenger being ejected from a vehicle who was properly using a seatbelt.
As for the airbag... airbag systems are complicated affairs. They trigger based on a number of factors. Was the first point of impact on the passenger side? If so, that may have caused the airbag on that side to deploy. By the time an impact occured on the drivers side, the van may have been going slow enough to not cause that bag to trigger. The drivers bag not firing, and the "imprint of my face" on the windshield leads me to believe that your seatbelt wasn't being used, but I wasn't there, so it's all speculation.
Also, airbags in vehicles of that vintage were not designed to deploy in roll-over accidents.

[judyangel]

Thanks for your response. The drivers side was the first to take impact. I appreciate your opinion about the seat belt. I am sure I put it on.
Again, thanks for the post.

[eldiablo1100]

for the seatbelt issue, i saw on one of those shows like 20/20 or 60 minutes, or something like that, i forgot which one. They did a story on seatbelts that failed during accidents. there was a part of the show where they explained that in an accident, something inside the car can bounce around and hit the seatbelt release button and accually unhooked the seatbelt. I'm guessing it's not a common event, but maybe that's what happened in your case.