Recalled Takata airbag blamed in death of Texas teen

Authorities say Huma Hanif was involved in a crash on March 31 in Fort Bend County.

The automaker says since 2011, six recall notices were mailed to the registered Civic owners, including the current owner. News accounts indicate that the victim wasn’t speeding and was wearing her seatbelt.

“Everybody should have walked away from this“, Beckwith said in an interview.

“A piece of the metal fragment was found lodged in her neck”, said Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls. The police pronounced her dead at the scene.

Honda spokesman Jeffrey Smith said the automaker has more than doubled the size of its customer relations team working on this issue.

Completion of the recall repairs have been slowed by a lack of replacement parts.

Another death has been linked to recalled Takata airbags.

It’s the 10th known death in the US from a Takata inflator and the 11th worldwide. Ford Motor Co. has reported a death from a Takata airbag rupture in one of its vehicles in the United States.

Takata’s embattled shares have been savaged since the scandal broke in 2014.

NHTSA said the latest death “highlights that the conventional approach to recall notification alone is inadequate”.

The victim’s 2002 Honda Civic collided with another vehicle, activating the air bags, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said.

“This incident highlights that the conventional approach to recall notification alone is inadequate”.

The Daicel inflators in the recalled vehicles are fitted into air bag modules made by Nihon Plast Co and are not used as replacements for Takata, according to Mr Fukushima. Honda is still waiting to receive inflators for the latest recall from an alternative supplier but expects to have them in the next several days.

Takata inflators can explode with too much force and spew shrapnel at drivers and passengers.

The Japanese recall is unrelated to Takata’s massive global recall of about 24 million cars from 14 manufacturers installed in cars dating back more than a decade.

Honda urged owners to get recall repairs completed quickly.