Reuters reports that a 19th death in the U.S. has been blamed on faulty Takata airbag inflators. The latest incident involves a vehicle that went unrepaired after the automaker attempted to contact the owner more than 100 times over a decade to arrange repairs.
More than 400 injuries and 28 deaths worldwide have been attributed to the airbag inflators, which can rupture, sending hot metal fragments flying into the car’s cabin. Takata inflators were built into tens of millions of cars worldwide, sold under at least 34 brand names. Nearly every automaker selling cars on the American market has cars affected by the Takata airbag recall.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 67 million cars on American roads carried the defective inflators. A total of 50 million of them have been repaired or removed from use.
That leaves as many as 17 million cars driving around every day with potentially deadly airbag inflators. At least two Americans died in Takata-related incidents last year.
This latest accident involved a 2002 Honda Accord, recalled to replace its airbag inflators in 2011. Honda says it had reached out to the owner more than 100 times to arrange the repair, using “mailed notices, phone calls, emails, and in-person canvassing visits,” yet the vehicle remained unrepaired.
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