Takata Airbag Failure Has Claimed Seven Lives

(RTTNews) - Faulty inflator in a Honda Civic, that exploded sending metal shrapnel around, killed a women in Louisiana. Honda confirmed that the fatality was due to the airbag made by Takata Corp. Till date seven people have been killed by the rupture of the Takata airbag inflator and more than 100 injuries were reported around the globe.

It is suspected that the metal canister for the ammonium nitrate that makes an explosion to inflate the airbag sends the shrapnel out and that turns fatal in many cases. Honda is the largest customer for Takata and uses their airbags in more than 20 million cars.

Honda has announced a massive recall in May that involved 5.1 million vehicles. The affected vehicles were equipped with a dual-stage driver frontal air bag. The recall was expected to begin on July 1.

Including other auto manufacturers, the total recall was 33.8 million cars and trucks, one of the largest recalls in the U.S. Takata has informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the real cause of the deadly explosion is not yet known and they are trying to find the root cause.

Earlier in June, 2014, Honda had recalled 5.394 million vehicles for replacing faulty airbag in Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Airbag issue was first detected in 2008, and until March 2015, more than 17 million vehicles have been recalled.

Owing to recall worries, Honda is reportedly planning a restatement of its earnings, earmarking $363 million for the recall.

Takahiro Hachigo will become the President of Honda Motor this month, replacing Takanobu Ito. The change was announced in February.