Everyone says "just go after whoever touched the car last," but actually Texas law can make the manufacturer responsible even if the installer also messed up.

Picture a Fort Worth driver getting hit in a lane shift near I-35W during construction season. The crash should have been survivable, but the airbag fails or deploys wrong, and the driver's leg injury gets much worse. The insurer starts the usual runaround: maybe the body shop installed it wrong, maybe the seller just resold it, maybe the crash itself caused everything. That blame-shifting is common when a defective part worsened an injury.

Here's how it generally works in Texas:

• A manufacturer can be liable under strict products liability if the airbag, brake part, tire, or other product had a design defect, manufacturing defect, or inadequate warning.
• An installer or repair shop can be liable if they put it in wrong, used the wrong part, or ignored obvious fitment or safety issues.
• A seller is often harder to sue in Texas unless it participated in the defect, altered the product, made its own safety claims, or the manufacturer cannot be found. Texas limits many claims against non-manufacturing sellers under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 82.
• A recall helps, but it does not automatically prove liability. No recall also does not let the manufacturer off the hook.

Texas usually gives 2 years from the injury date to file a personal injury lawsuit.

If immigration status is what is keeping someone silent, filing an injury claim in Texas is not the same thing as reporting yourself for deportation. A civil case over a defective product goes through insurers, courts, repair records, and companies like TxDOT contractors, not immigration enforcement.

What matters most is preserving the vehicle, failed part, recall notices, repair invoices, crash report, and photos before the insurer gets rid of anything.