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Dangerous Airbags Still Seriously Injuring and Killing People
Takata, a brand of airbags installed in Honda and Acura vehicles is responsible for 16 deaths internationally and 11 alone in the United States. Around 69 million Takata airbags have been recalled worldwide but the hassle of replacing these airbags have deterred more than 300,000 Honda owners from replacing or repairing their airbags.
The most recent death that a defective Takata airbag caused was a California woman in early November 2016. This past summer, government regulators said testing showed that inflators in 313,000 older Hondas and Acuras had as high as a 50 percent chance of rupturing in a crash. But four months later, only 13,000 of the cars have been repaired.
While they did not manufacture the airbags, Honda says it’s doing all it can. “It’s not for lack of unprecedented effort to try to reach these owners,” company spokesman Chris Martin said. Honda will pick up cars and drop off a loaner, says Martin, who adds that Honda has parts ready to repair all the dangerous cars.
Takata Corporation, for its part, has agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud in concealing its sales of defective automotive airbag inflators, and will pay $1 billion in fines and restitution.