U.S. regulators together with Honda Motor Co, announced on Wednesday that another driver was killed last month after a driver air bag raptured. The driver was a 17-year old girl from Texas and is the tenth casualty in the U.S. that is linked to the defective Takata Corp airbag.
According to Honda, they have mailed multiple recall notices to the owner of the ill-fated Honda Civic in Fort Bend County, Texas. There were no repairs made and the fatal accident happened on March 31.
Denny Beckwith, the Sheriff's Deputy in Fort Bend County said that the driver was a senior in high school whose car was behind a Honda CR-V while waiting for the traffic to clear intending to make a left turn.
"Everybody should have walked away from this," said Beckwith in an interview. He added that the airbag was punctured by shrapnel and cut the driver's neck and carotid artery. The police pronounced her dead at the scene.
Takata airbags pose grave danger since their inflators can explode with excessive force and propel shrapnel towards drivers and passengers. Currently, there are 14 carmakers that have recalled 24 million vehicles in the United States. This scandal is now the biggest auto recall that happened in U.S. history.
Last February, General Motors recalled around 200,000 Saturn and Saab cars in the country and Canada to replace the inflators of the Takata airbags. Aside from Honda and GM, other car makers such as Mazda, BMW, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Daimler Trucks and Volkswagen have also recalled their affected vehicles.
All in all, the total number of inflators that were replaced is about 7.1 million, and the government is saying that these recalls will be expanded.
According to Honda Motor Co, of the 10 deaths caused by faulty Takata air bags, nine have occurred in Honda vehicles. One death was reported by Ford Motor Co in one of its vehicles in the U.S.
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