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Takata airbag led to Louisiana death

Posted on 20 December, 2017

A faulty Takata air bag inflator has killed another person, this time in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Honda said Tuesday night.
The unidentified person is the 20th death worldwide attributed to the faulty inflators, which can explode with too much force and hurl shrapnel into car and truck cabins.
The person died in a July 10 crash of a 2004 Honda Civic. Officials from the automaker and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration inspected the car Tuesday and confirmed that the driver's air bag inflator blew apart and caused the death, Honda spokesman Marcos Frommer said. Recalls for faulty airbags began in 2013, with 3.4 million cars initially affected, and has rapidly expanded. Over 100 million vehicles were recalled worldwide across over a dozen car manufacturers, including Honda, Toyota and BMW. A Fair Go investigation on New Zealand television found over 300,000 cars were affected in New Zealand, with many faulty airbags still to be replaced.