2011 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 — Complaint #1743658
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about AIR BAGS:SIDE/WINDOW:CURTAIN filed April 26, 2021
NHTSA complaint #1743658 (ODI reference 11413960) concerns a 2011 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 and was filed on April 26, 2021. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 26, 2021. The vehicle had 145,282 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as air bags:side/window:curtain, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 1. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 cohort independently describe similar air bags:side/window:curtain failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2011 CHEVROLET SILVERADO 1500 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2011 CHEVROLET SILVERADO. THE CONTACT'S SON WAS DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 55 MPH, WHEN THE FRONT DRIVER'S AND PASSENGER'S SIDE CURTAIN AIR BAGS DEPLOYED WITHOUT WARNING. THE CONTACT STATED THAT HIS SON CALLED HIM AT THE TIME OF THE FAILURE AND INFORMED HIM THAT THE AIR BAGS HIT HIM ON THE SIDE OF HIS HEAD WHEN THEY INADVERTENTLY DEPLOYED, HOWEVER MEDICAL ATTENTION WAS NOT RECEIVED. THE CONTACT'S SON DIED THE DAY AFTER THE FAILURE OCCURRED. THE CONTACT WAS STILL AWAITING AN AUTOPSY REPORT FOR THE CAUSE OF HIS SON'S DEATH. THE CONTACT STATED HE RECEIVED NOTIFICATION OF NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBER: 21V050000 (AIR BAGS) AFTER THE FAILURE HAD OCCURRED. THE DEALER AND MANUFACTURER WERE NOT MADE AWARE OF THE FAILURE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 145,282.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1743658 |
| ODI Number | 11413960 |
| Date Filed | April 26, 2021 |
| Failure Date | March 26, 2021 |
| VIN | 1GCRCREA1BZ |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.