As part of our coverage on airbags this month http://abrn.search-autoparts.com/abrn/Rotating+Feature+Articles/Airbag-Issues-Collision-industry-addresses-fraud-r/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/582023?contextCategoryId=47028, we polled the readers of ABRN to find out if a customer has ever asked that a deployed airbag NOT be replaced after an accident. It’s a logical question given the current times, when everyone is trying to save money. What’s not very logical is that anyone would want to take such a chance with their safety (and their lives).

And while the laws differ from state to state, this issue is too serious for collision repairers not to take notice. It’s up to the repairer to accept the request – and to accept the liability.

Some of our respondents feel it’s not worth the risk:

“Yes they have, including just recently. We explain because of liability reasons we would not be able to do their repairs and not replace airbags or any safety components. It just is not worth losing my business. We would rather the competition lose theirs, so we let them take it somewhere else.”

Others told us these requests usually come from self-pay customers:

“Usually when a customer asks me to not replace an airbag is when they are trying to pay for repairs themselves and they see the airbag as a non-essential item. I immediately tell them I will not do only partial repairs on a vehicle with deployed airbags. I look at it this way: If I replace the bumper, repair the inner structure and whatever else cosmetic repairs are needed up front, then the owner goes home and stitches up the airbag cover and someone wrecks the car again, what is my liability? In this lawsuit happy world, I do not want to find out.”

But a few repairers out there have taken the risk:

“I had a 2002 Toyota 4Runner that was totaled. The customer wanted to retian the salvage so he could use it as a hunting vehicle in the woods. He said it would not be used on the road. However, that was not the case. He has a hunting lease that was twelve miles from where he had his camp. so each time they hunted, they were on the road for 24 miles round trip in this vehicle. That made me nervous so I had him sign a release from harm document. He is an attorney from New Orleans and he completely understood my position.”

Bottom line: Don’t risk your business, and don’t risk a customer’s life.