Honda is adding 21 million vehicles to the Takata Airbag recall. In all, more than 51 million vehicles worldwide are being recalled due to the issue, but it is unclear how many of those vehicles are in the United States. According to a report in the New York Times, the number of affected vehicles in the United States is unknown. However, if you were in the market for a new car, you may want to consider getting a used one.
A recent Nissan X-Trail crash in Japan involved a Takata Airbag. The airbag deployed with too much force, smashing the passenger-side window. The high-temperature fragments flew through the airbag and into the dashboard. The fire ignited the airbag, causing the fire. Fortunately, the driver was only injured. But there is more bad news to come. As a result of the Takata Airbag recall, Honda has announced a voluntary advertising campaign to remind owners to check their airbags for defects.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Lafayette, Louisiana. In April, a 22-year-old woman was killed when the driver’s side airbag ruptured while her car was hitting a telephone pole. The lawsuit alleges that she had received the recall notice four days before she died. Her death was the seventh attributed to a Takata Airbag. The airbag ruptures are a serious problem, with serious consequences for drivers and passengers alike.
The lawsuit aims to hold Takata accountable for the defective airbag inflators. The company hid the results of tests performed on defective airbag inflators and destroyed evidence as early as 2000. According to the lawsuit, a top Takata executive ordered the failure parts to be “discarded” and fabricated a report to hide the issue. As a result, there are now 12 million cars worldwide that are recalled because of the issue.
The company has admitted that the inflators used in cars are faulty and have caused injuries and deaths in a number of cars. The company has also expanded its recalls from regional to national levels, recalling 17 million vehicles. In the meantime, the company agreed to pay an additional $14,000 per day in order to settle the lawsuit. In addition, the NHTSA has imposed a record civil penalty of $200 million on Takata, forcing it to stop manufacturing inflators that contain the risky propellant ammonium nitrate. Further, the company must prove the safety of the inflators and find out the cause of the ruptures.
Toyota has extended its recall for the Takata Airbag infecting nearly one million vehicles in the United States. The recall covers passenger-side airbags in models such as the Toyota Corolla and Matrix, the 2010 Corolla, the Lexus ES, the GX, the Lexus IS, and the 2011 Scion xB. To further enhance the safety of drivers and passengers, the carmaker has agreed to replace the inflators with better ones produced by non-Takata suppliers.