U.S. confirms 11th death linked to faulty Takata air bag inflator
U.S. confirms 11th death linked to faulty Takata air bag inflator
U.S. safety
regulators confirmed late Thursday an 11th death in the United States
caused by a ruptured Takata Corp air bag inflator, the latest fatality
tied to the largest ever auto safety recall. At
least 16 deaths are now linked to the defect, including five in
Malaysia, that prompted the recall of nearly 100 million air bag
inflators worldwide by more than a dozen automakers. The
U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said a
50-year-old woman died after a Sept. 30 crash in Riverside County,
California in a 2001 Honda Civic that was first recalled in 2008 and
never repaired. This is
the first U.S. death reported from a Takata inflator since a 17-year-old
high school senior died in Texas in March in a moderate speed crash.
Automakers have fixed about 11.4 million inflators in the United States
to date -- leaving more than 20 million unrepaired. The defective air
bag inflators deploy with too much force sending metal fragments flying. Honda
said in a statement Thursday that more than 20 recall notices were
mailed over nearly eight years to registered owners of the vehicle in
the deadly California crash. The
victim was identified as Delia Robles, a Corona, California resident
who died at a hospital after a crash at a Riverside intersection, the
coroner's office said. Nine
of the 11 U.S. deaths have been reported in 2001-2003 model Honda and
Acura vehicles that in June NHTSA classified as high risk and urged
owners to immediately stop driving until they got repairs. The 313,000
vehicles identified in June have as high as a 50 percent chance of a
dangerous air bag inflator rupture in a crash, NHTSA said citing test
data. Takata spokesman
Jared Levy said the "tragedy underscores the importance of replacing
those airbag inflators that have been recalled by automakers." Honda
said previously it had already repaired more than 70 percent of the
original group of 1.08 million vehicles recalled with this specific
version of the inflator deemed high risk. In
May, NHTSA said 17 automakers will be required to recall another 35
million to 40 million U.S. air bag inflators assembled by Takata by
2019. Takata is seeking a financial investor to help pay for huge liabilities from the world's biggest auto recall. Five
bidding groups, who are the air-bag maker's creditors and customers,
will meet with Takata this month in New York, Reuters reported last
week, citing people familiar with the matter said.
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