I would say it depends on whether your family member was hurt or not. When an airbag goes off, it causes a pretty traumatic impact on the person. I’ve known 2 people who had their airbags deploy and they both looked like they got mugged (bloodshot eyes, scratches, bruising, etc). One of those guys had his airbag accidently deploy while going over a speed bump and his face still looked trashed. I worked with the group that invented airbags and they had all kinds of horror stories about the damage it could do.
Over time, technology has gotten better and cars have gotten smarter about deploying airbags. So if your family member wasn’t hurt, its likely that the airbag didn’t go off by design. The car computer may have figured that the airbag would have hurt your family member more than the accident would. But if your family member’s head hit the steering wheel, then that’s a different story.
