After incorrectly hearing that newer vehicles don't have to worry about Takata, I pulled a brief from a lawsuit against Takata. In this brief, which is just on of a littany of lawsuits against Takata the following injuries occured:
38. The following are the plaintiffs who are in the Personal Injury Track as of the date of the filing of this Master Amended Consolidated Complaint
Jasmine Briant
citizen of the State of Louisiana who resides in Orleans Parish, Louisiana
2012 Jeep Patriot
From same brief:
All “Defective Airbags” Contain the “Inflator Defect.” As a result of the Inflator Defect, Defective Airbags have an unreasonably dangerous tendency to: (a) rupture and expel metal shrapnel that tears through the airbag and poses a threat of serious injury or death to occupants; (b) hyper-aggressively deploy and seriously injure occupants through contact with the airbag; and (c) fail to deploy altogether.
57. As detailed in this Complaint, over the course of seven years Takata and the Vehicle Manufacturer Defendants have issued a series of partial, misleading, and ultimately ineffective recalls to address the Defective Airbags. For reference, the following table identifies the recalled vehicles by manufacturer, and which of the front airbags were included in the recall for each vehicle (driver or passenger):
More:
On November 1, 2003, Charlene Weaver of Arizona--one of the least humid states in the country--was a passenger in a 2004 Subaru Impreza when she was killed in a Takata airbag-related accident. As summarized in a later section of this Complaint, her car was not recalled until May 2014, more than a decade later. A ONE YEAR OLD AIRBAG AT THE TIME OF INJURY
91. Also, in 2003, an inflator ruptured in a BMW in Switzerland, prompting a January 2004 investigation by Takata and BMW. That investigation took place at a Takata facility in Michigan, and involved an inflator sold to BMW, Honda, and Toyota. The testing was ordered by a senior Takata executive, and the results indicated improper welding and incorrect installation of chemical propellant wafers. A ONE YEAR OLD AIRBAG AT THE TIME OF INJURY
92. In 2004, a Takata airbag violently exploded in a Honda Accord in Alabama, shooting out metal fragments and injuring the car's driver. Honda was notified of the incident, and at least one Takata employee recalls being told that Honda examined the part before turning it over to Takata. Takata reported back to Honda that it was unable to find a cause for the incident. Ultimately, the companies deemed the incident “an anomaly,” and conducted no further investigation or analysis to the public's knowledge. Notably, Honda and Takata did not issue a recall or even involve federal safety regulators beyond completing a reporting form in a cursory and incomplete manner.
98. In June and August of 2007, Honda notified Takata of three additional airbag explosion incidents. All three accidents involved metal fragments propelling into the faces and bodies of car passengers upon deployment of the airbags. As with the 2004 incident, Honda did not initiate a recall or provide information about the ruptures to federal investigators. Rather, it callously risked vehicle occupants' safety as it purportedly awaited a failure mode analysis being conducted by Takata.
133. In the meantime, Honda and Takata quietly continued their internal investigation into the Inflator Defect. According to Honda, an exploding airbag in Puerto Rico in October 2011 prompted Honda to ask permission from NHTSA to collect “healthy” airbag modules to see if “abnormal combustion was possible.” The collection began on March 14, 2012, and by November 21, 2012, Honda in fact found that even its so-called “healthy” airbags could abnormally combust in certain conditions.
On October 12, 2013, Brandi Owens of Forsyth County, Georgia was injured in a low-speed accident when the driver-side Takata airbag of her 2013 Chevy Cruze exploded and detached from the steering wheel. According to a lawsuit, metal from the airbag hit Owens in the face and left her blind in one eye.
c. On March 14, 2014, Susan Cosgrove of Fremont, California was injured in a low-speed accident while driving a 2013 Chevy Cruze. The Takata-related recall notice on her car arrived at her residence after the incident.
On December 4, 2013, Jasmine Briant was operating a 2012 Jeep Patriot 4x>4 owned by Gregory and Anita Briant, and traveling westbound on Interstate 10 near the Crowder Boulevard exit in New Orleans, Louisiana, when she was involved in a collision. The collision occurred when a “John Doe” defendant, operating his/her white Ford 250 vehicle, suddenly veered into the left lane, cutting in front of and/or hitting Ms. Briant's vehicle causing her to swerve into the shoulder striking the concrete barrier and injuring Ms. Briant.
189. During the incident, the vehicle's driver-side airbag inflator exploded and caused the airbag to deploy with excessive force and at an excessive rate of speed, striking Ms. Briant, resulting in serious injuries, including blindness in her left eye.
As you can see, Honda has had to admit that these "healthy", not yet recalled bags are still dangerous. These bags have caused injury within one year of being new, and injuries are occurring in late model-non-recalled vehicles too.
So while the majority of deaths/injuries occurred in older model Hondas, the risk is still there, and everyone should be aware of it.
Again, this is just one brief of many, but it shows that late model bags (and even driver side takata bags, which have yet to be recalled) are causing the same problem.
