WASHINGTON — Honda Motor Co. stated on Saturday it has confirmed a seventeenth U.S. demise tied to a faulty airbag inflator created by now-defunct Japanese basic safety items provider Takata Corp.
Honda stated that right after a joint inspection with the U.S. Nationwide Highway Traffic Security Administration, it confirmed a faulty airbag inflator was to blame for the Aug. twenty crash of a 2002 Honda Civic that led to the demise of a driver in Mesa, Ariz.
The defect, which can direct to airbag inflators rupturing and sending steel fragments flying, prompted the major automotive recall in U.S. background and is tied to 15 U.S. fatalities in Honda motor vehicles and two in Ford Motor Co. motor vehicles given that 2009. Additional than 290 accidents are also tied to faulty Takata inflators and at minimum 26 fatalities around the world.
Honda stated the 2002 Civic experienced been beneath recall given that December 2011 for replacement of the driver’s frontal airbag inflator, whilst the passenger’s frontal airbag inflator was recalled in 2014.