Yet another person has died from defective airbag inflators that have been recalled by U.S. regulators.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed that the woman who died in California last month is the 11th American victim of the Takata Corporation’s faulty instrument. As many as five other people were killed by the same inflators in Malaysia. More from the Associated Press:
The agency said the woman, identified in Riverside County, California, coroner's records as Delia Robles, 50, of Corona, was driving a 2001 Honda Civic. Riverside police said in a statement that a man making a left turn in a Chevrolet pickup truck was hit head-on by the Civic. The woman was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she died from her injuries, the statement said.
While Honda sent more than 20 recall notices to affected Civic owners, the owner of the car involved in this latest accident never repaired the vehicle. Honda has urged vehicle owners to stop driving the compromised cars immediately. Nearly 300,000 vehicles have not yet been repaired.
The faulty air bags inflate too powerfully, sending metal shrapnel flying at passengers. This led U.S. regulators to enforce the largest auto recall in U.S. history earlier this year, deeming 69 million inflators too dangerous for use. Worldwide, 100 million inflators have been recalled. The recall has cost the Japan-based company billions of dollars.