Air Bag Knee Bolster problems of the 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan

The vehicle was going approximately 55mph when it collided head on with a cow. The driver side frontal air bags deployed. The driver's legs were injured by the cover of the lower air bag.

The knee blocker airbag in my 05 Dodge Grand Caravan opened in a frontal collision. The airbag is behind a steel plate hinged at the bottom of the dash. Attached to this plate is the hard plastic panel. The airbag propelled this plate and panel into my shins, disabling me, and when I brought my legs back from the pain, the hard plastic panel dropped in front of my legs and prevented me from returning my feet to the brake. Had I been suffering from osteoporosis my legs would have been shattered and I could not have stopped my van, had it continued to roll after the initial collision.

In the 05 and newer Dodge/Chrysler cars and minivans, there is a "knee blocker" airbag system installed on the driver's side below the steering column, that is defective in design and in it's intended use. The lower dash panel is attached to a metal frame that is hinged at the bottom and behind that is the airbag that deploys at just under 200 mph. When the airbag inflates in an accident, this hard plastic reinforce panel will slam down on a driver's legs causing injury. But that's not all. . . When the driver's legs are struck, the first instinct is for the driver to recoil and bring their legs away from the cause of the pain. When they do this, this panel drops in front of the legs and now the driver cannot get their feet back to the brake pedal to stop the vehicle. If their vehicle continues to roll, there is a danger of a further collision with the driver having little control. One last consideration, is the potential for significant injury to diabetics (lower limbs are susceptible to lower leg problems, and those with osteoporosis who likely would have broken lower limbs.

Chrysler/Dodge minivans 2005 and newer "knee bolster" airbag system, has a steel plate hinged at the bottom of the dash and is propelled by the deploying airbag into the driver's legs. The driver immediately and instinctively pulls the legs back and the assembly drops in front of the driver's legs preventing the driver from stopping the vehicle. That is if the driver's legs aren't broken by this, and then they can't stop the vehicle if they wanted to. This will lead to secondary and more serious collisions and possibly death for occupants in the vehicle because the driver cannot stop the vehicle.

This is a copy of an email I sent to Chrysler concerning an accident on 2-3-06 my wife was involved in. Chrysler held up repairs and sent a "special investigator" to look at the van. To make a long story short Chrysler now says the air bag worked as designed and they are denying our claim. We are getting the run around on the phone and Chrysler will not discuss it with us now. All I was asking was for them to recall this feature and make it deploy to cause less injury and or disable it on our van. Thank you jimmy sutherland my wife was involved in an accident in our 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan, all the air bags deployed and I was impressed with the way the vehicle performed with exception to the drivers knee airbag. This airbag is located under the steering column and behind both a metal and plastic dashplate, when deployed these dashplates were forced into my wife's lower legs causing injuries from the knees down. No other injuries were suffered by anyone in either vehicle other than these leg injuries. This leads me to believe that if this air bag wasn't there she would have had no injuries either. Or if this air bag was installed similar to the drivers steering wheel air bag and not behind the two plates then no injuries would have been suffered. . Read more...