The Takata Corporation is an airbag manufacturing company that recently went under fire due to its faulty product. And just recently, eight individuals were identified as the latest victims in the series of incidents involving a malfunctioning airbag.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officials have declared that the minor caught in a car accident near Pittsburgh is the latest death caused by lots of metal shrapnel exploding from an airbag. Because of that, the NHTSA has ordered an expansion on recalls of vehicles that contain Takata airbags. This expansion can affect a hundred thousand of other vehicles around the country that contain this sort of air bag.
Gordon Trowbridge, spokesperson for the NHTSA, has made the announcement after the attorney of the victim's family appealed to them by saying that the young man who died was using a 2001 Honda Accord that was supposed to be under recall but was never repaired nor looked at. The family's attorney also added in the statement that the teen's death can be caused or attributed by the airbag rapture in which the tool itself exploded and released a lot of metal fragments straight to the victim. Further investigations revealed that a government official confirmed that a minor boy was indeed driving the car when it got out of the road and rammed against a tree.
Mr. Towbridge also commented that the senseless death of the 13-year-old Pennsylvanian boy is basically the reason why they're trying their best to get defective vehicles like the ones containing Takata airbags out of the road. Aside from the teen, a woman in Malaysia also got involved in a fatal car crash that had something to do with airbag malfunctions. After the investigation, it was found out that the manufacturer of the defective tool is also Takata. Her death brought the total number of nine around the world, with eight of them being from the United States. Hundreds are also reported to have been injured by airbags from Takata.
Al though the expansion of the recall and a compliance order against Takata company sounds great, Mr. Towbridge is still worried because the exact number of cars that will be involved in the recall is still unidentified.
