Honda Motor confirmed that a rupturing airbag inflator killed the driver of a 2005 Honda Civic in an April, 2015 Louisiana motor vehicle crash.
In the crash, the airbag allegedly exploded, sending fragments in the car and into the driver’s neck.
Honda had sent out a safety notice for the car, three days before the crash. Honda stated that the scale of the recalls and a lack of replacement parts prompted it to prioritize servicing vehicles in “humid” regions like Florida, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, considered to be at highest risk of an inflator rupture.
At least seven deaths and more than 100 injuries have been linked to defective airbags that can rupture violently, they are made by Takata, the Japanese supplier.
Takata and Honda were alerted to the airbag rupture problem in 2004, the bulk of the recalls came in the last two years.