The Takata Corp airbag recall numbers continue to rise, as millions of additional vehicles have been linked to the defective air bag inflators. This month alone, General Motors has announced a recall for roughly 200,000 Saab and Saturn automobiles throughout Canada and the United States. The recall requests replacement of Takata-manufactured side airbag inflators PSDI-5 on the driver’s side of vehicles. Included in this recall are 2003-2011 Saab 9-3, 2010-2011 Saab 9-5, and 2008-2009 Saturn Astra automobiles.
U.S. automobile regulators also announced this month that there may be an additional 70 to 90 million Takata air bag inflators recalled. This is after Takata agreed last year to pay a penalty to the NHTSA in the amount of $70 million. Along with this fine, the company agreed to cease producing airbag inflators with ammonium nitrate within the next two years. They are also supposed to declare defects in all inflators using this ammonium nitrate by the year 2019.
As more and more lawsuits come to light regarding injuries and deaths resulting from Takata airbag defects, we are bound to hear of stories such as the one out of Florida recently. An engineer for Takata Corp. chose to plead his 5th amendment right and declined to testify in a lawsuit involving a victim who was paralyzed after a 2014 accident. The engineer is said to have been involved in Takata airbag testing. This lawsuit, along with many others, is based on evidence that Takata withheld testing data from customers such as Honda and GM. This obviously led to the use of defective airbags in automobiles unbeknownst to auto manufacturers.
The NHTSA’s expansion of Takata air bag inflator recalls is now up to about 28 million vehicles. The recall is due to the possibility of an inflator rupturing, which could cause fragments of metal to deploy. Lawsuits claim that these metal fragments have caused serious injuries and death. If you or someone you know were involved in an auto accident in which the deploying airbags ruptured and caused injuries, you may have a legal claim against Takata. For more information, call Jones & Swanson at 770-427-5498 today.
Categories: Airbag Safety, Automobile Defects, Automobile Recall, Defective Products, Product Recall, Recalls
