← NHTSA complaints

2018 AUDI R8 — AIR BAGS

1 fatalcrash1 injured · 1976066 · 2024-03-18

Vehicle

Make
AUDI
Model
R8
Year
2018
Manufacturer
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.
Component
AIR BAGS

Severity

Deaths
1
Injured
1
Fire
No
Crash
Yes
Police report
Yes
Medical attention
Yes
Vehicle towed
Yes

Narrative

The car was involved in a fatal crash where the side impact airbag (side of fatality) failed to deploy and the EDR failed to fully comply with Part 563 requirements. All other airbags and rollover system deployed but the EDR recorded only the deployment of the side impact airbag on the driver side. The EDR included 6 events and some of them have severity less than the threshold required by the regulation. There was a criminal investigation and trial as a result of the fatality and the state witnesses explained this failure due to the fact the airbag deployed so fast so the EDR could not record it. I believe the EDR failed to record the crash event correctly and also failed to deploy the side impact airbag on the passenger side, This is evident from the fact that there are 4 other airbags and a rollover protection system that were deployed and the EDR, contrary to Part 563, failed to record them.

Source

Authoritative
NHTSA ODI Flat-File Downloads
ODI Number
11577929
Machine
JSON-LD · Markdown