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Explosion injures driver

Posted on 20 April, 2015

An exploding Takata airbag has left a motorist in the US hurt after a crash in a 2003 Honda Civic last month. More than 20 million vehicles produced by some of the world’s biggest car makers are being recalled due to the risk that their airbags could deploy with shrapnel being sprayed around the car. “We have discovered that an injury to a driver in Florida on March 20 was caused by the abnormal rupture of a Takata-made airbag,” says a spokesman for Honda. “We’ve been told the driver was hit by a piece of flying metal when the airbag exploded.” he said. The details of the case are still under investigation. A Takata spokesman says the company “is closely communicating with Honda to discover the circumstances of the incident”.

THE SITUATION IN NEW ZEALAND

An investigation by Autofile magazine in March found out that more than 21,000 vehicles in New Zealand are affected by the Takata recall. The number of new vehicles called back by Honda in this country stood at 7,254 at that stage, of which about 40 per cent have been recalled. Bryan Davis, national service manager of Honda NZ, says the recalls here centre on its parent company in Japan trying to ensure all of its vehicles with potential faults are correctly identified. “Honda Motor Company is going that extra mile to increase consumer confidence,” David told Autofile. He describes the company’s waiting time for remedial work as variable and – in rare instances – this can be up to six months. “When a recall is announced, parts are usually here in a couple of weeks,” he says. “The most important thing is to inform people because information comes out in stages and parts need to be distributed around the world. “The average wait time is generally only one month or so if we haven’t got the part available. The other matter is there are only so many parts available due to the global scale of this recall.” Honda NZ also provides incentives to ensure customers return their called-back cars to franchised dealerships for repairs to be completed. “It’s one of our responsibilities to try everything we can to ensure full uptake of the recall and we’re working with the NZTA to get total traction.”