Ten months after an Arizona man died as a result of injuries sustained in the crash of his 2002 Honda Civic, the death has been tied to a defective airbag inflator made by supplier Takata. The inflator was under recall in the single largest automotive recall case in history, spanning 19 automakers and over 100 million defective inflators. The driver in the latest fatal incident died as a result of his injuries three days after the crash.
"The vehicle involved in this crash had been under recall since December 2014 for replacement of the Takata driver’s frontal airbag inflator," the automaker said in a statement. "Starting in January 2015, more than 12 mailed recall notices were sent over the course of three years to prior registered owners of this vehicle before the June 2018 crash. In addition, Honda made more than 20 phone calls in an attempt to reach owners of this vehicle. Our records indicate that the recall repair was never completed."
The affected Takata airbags have been linked to over 290 injuries and over two dozen deaths worldwide over the past several years. The ammonium nitrate propellant tablets found in the affected airbags, present in a significant number of older Honda models sold in the U.S. and other countries, have been determined to degrade over time due to age, humidity and other factors, and they explode with a force greater than intended during normal airbag deployment in a crash. In incidents of injuries and deaths linked to these degraded propellant tablets, drivers were often hit in the face or neck with metal and plastic debris during normal airbag deployment during a crash event, suffering a variety of injuries including severe blood loss from the neck following debris impact.
As a result of the large number of injuries and several deaths — 14 U.S. deaths in Honda vehicles and an additional 2 U.S. deaths in other vehicles — the affected airbags have been under recall in several countries following an intensive investigation.
"The driver killed in this crash, who was the current owner, purchased the vehicle less than three months prior to the incident," Honda added. "There is no requirement that sellers, new owners or any other parties inform Honda of a change of ownership, and Honda was not made aware of the ownership change at the time of the crash. Thus, Honda was not able to send any recall notices to the new owner before the tragic event."
The Takata airbag recall has been the subject of a massive information campaign by Honda and other automakers as they race to make certain that all affected vehicles are repaired before any more injuries or deaths occur. Honda has indicated that vehicles with defective inflators from the 2001-2003 model years pose a higher risk of inflator rupture due to the age of the propellant, which is one of the factors linked to severe airbag deployments.
"Honda currently has sufficient supplies of replacement inflators to complete the free repairs for all recalled Honda and Acura models in the United States, and we urge all owners of affected vehicles to seek repair as soon as possible," the automaker added.
Visit Honda's recall website for more information about Takata airbags, and the NHTSA's Takata information site which lists the affected vehicles from all brands to check if your vehicle has a defective airbag.
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