Defective Airbags, Tires and Car Parts: Product Liability Claims in Utah

Short answer: If an airbag, tire, seat belt, brake part or other component failed and made a crash happen or made your injuries worse, the company that made or sold it can be responsible under Utah’s Product Liability Act. That claim can run alongside the claim against the driver who hit you, but it has its own two-year deadline and it depends heavily on keeping the vehicle and the failed part.

Most crash claims are about a driver’s mistake. Some are also about a product that did not do its job: an airbag that never deployed, a tire tread that peeled away at freeway speed, a seat belt latch that released. When that happens, the at-fault driver’s insurance is only part of the picture.

What Utah Law Requires You to Prove

Utah’s product liability rules are in Title 78B, Chapter 6, Part 7 of the Utah Code, known as the Utah Product Liability Act (Utah Code 78B-6-701). The central rule is that a product is not considered defective unless, at the time the manufacturer or other initial seller sold it, it had a defect that made it “unreasonably dangerous” to the user (Utah Code 78B-6-703(1)).

“Unreasonably dangerous” has a specific meaning. It means the product was dangerous beyond what an ordinary and prudent buyer or user would expect, considering its characteristics, risks and uses, along with what that particular user actually knew (Utah Code 78B-6-702(4)). Nobody expects a tire to last forever. People do expect it not to come apart on a new car at highway speed.

In practice, product claims usually point to one of three problems:

• A manufacturing flaw, where this particular part came off the line different from the design, such as a bad weld or a tire with a separation.
• A design flaw, where the part was built as intended but the design itself was unsafe.
• A warning problem, where the danger was not obvious and the instructions or warnings did not tell you about it.

The Two-Year Clock

This is the deadline people miss. Most Utah injury claims against a driver have four years under the catch-all limit in Utah Code 78B-2-307(4). A claim under the Product Liability Act has two years, measured from when you discovered, or with due diligence should have discovered, both the harm and its cause (Utah Code 78B-6-706).

That discovery rule helps when a defect is not obvious at first. It does not help someone who knew the airbag failed on the day of the crash and waited. If a product may be involved, treat two years as the working deadline. Our guide to Utah’s statute of limitations covers the other deadlines that can apply.

Recalls Help, but They Are Not the Whole Case

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration keeps a public recall lookup at nhtsa.gov/recalls, where you can check a vehicle by its vehicle identification number (VIN). Check the VIN of every vehicle involved, including yours, and check the brand and model of any failed tire or other equipment.

An open recall on the part that failed is strong evidence that the manufacturer knew about a problem. It is not automatic proof that your injury came from that defect, and the absence of a recall does not mean the part was safe. Many product cases involve defects that were never recalled.

Government Standards Cut Both Ways

Vehicles and equipment are built to federal safety standards. Utah law gives manufacturers a rebuttable presumption that a product is free of defects if the design or manufacturing methods complied with government standards for that industry that existed when they were adopted (Utah Code 78B-6-703(2)). “Rebuttable” matters: the presumption can be overcome with evidence, but it means a manufacturer that met the standards starts with an advantage, and your case has to show more.

Automated driving systems are handled under separate rules in the same section that put more of the burden on the injured person. If a self-driving feature was involved, see our post on self-driving car crashes in Utah.

Keep the Car and the Part

A product case lives or dies on the physical evidence. After a crash, the vehicle usually goes to a tow yard or a salvage auction within weeks, and the insurer that paid for it may sell it. Once it is crushed, the airbag control module, the tire, the seat belt hardware and the crash data go with it.

• Tell your insurer, in writing, that you want the vehicle held and not sold or salvaged.
• Do not have the part repaired, replaced or thrown away.
• Keep any tire, part or car seat that was removed, and photograph it where it is.
• Write down who has the vehicle and where it is stored.
• Send a written preservation request to the tow yard or storage lot.

Experts on both sides will want to inspect the same parts, often together, so nobody can claim the evidence was altered. Changes made after the sale also matter legally: an alteration or modification that changed how the product was designed or intended to be used counts as fault under Utah’s comparative fault rules (Utah Code 78B-6-705). An aftermarket lift kit or other modification can become the manufacturer’s defense.

Suing the Manufacturer and the Driver Together

A defective part rarely causes a crash all by itself. More often, a driver’s mistake caused the crash, and a defect made the injuries much worse than they should have been. Utah handles this through comparative fault. Its definition of “fault” expressly includes products liability, breach of warranty and misuse or modification of a product, alongside ordinary negligence (Utah Code 78B-5-817(2)).

The jury assigns a percentage of fault to each party, and each defendant pays only its own share of the damages (Utah Code 78B-5-820). You can recover as long as the combined fault of the defendants exceeds yours (Utah Code 78B-5-818(2)), which means a claimant found 50% or more at fault recovers nothing. That is why both claims usually belong in the same case: if the driver is not sued, the driver’s share can still be pointed to and argued over, and the part of your loss that belongs to the driver goes unpaid. We explain how those percentages work in recovering when you were partly at fault.

One practical point: a settlement with the at-fault driver’s insurer usually comes with a release. Read who it releases before you sign so it does not cut off a claim against a manufacturer you have not yet identified.

Why These Cases Take Longer

Manufacturers defend product cases hard, and the proof is technical: engineering inspections, testing, design documents and expert testimony. That work costs money up front. At West Injury Law, the fee is a one-third contingency, and the firm advances case costs, which are repaid from the recovery. You pay nothing up front, and no attorney fees unless we win.

Talk to a Utah Injury Attorney

If a part failed in your crash, the most useful thing you can do this week is keep the vehicle from being sold or scrapped. We can help send the preservation letters and figure out whether a product claim belongs next to the claim against the driver.

Hurt in Utah? Call (801) 921-5134 or send us your case for a free consultation. No attorney fees unless we win. Hablamos Español.

For more on defect claims, see our Utah product liability page, our rollover accident page and our burn injury page.