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Takata Airbag Incident Fatally Injures a Woman

When the Takata airbag saga started in April 2013, many safety experts and automotive publications expected things to turn from worse to worst. Just like the killer GM ignition switches, a recent report claims a woman was killed by metal shrapnel spat out by an inadequate Takata front airbag deployment.
Deployed Airbag 1 photo
Photo: erge on pixabay.com
Let's face it, even though automakers affected by the malfunctioning Takata Corporation component told they're not aware of any people fatally injured by the thing, the inevitable happened. Previous reports tell two other people died because of exploding debris, making this the third death related to the condition.

This time around, a woman from Orlando, Florida has been found dead in her car, with a fatal wound on her neck that was originally believed to be a classic stab wound. However, investigators from Orange County's Sheriff Department found out after thorough analysis of the unfortunate event that the wound was actually inflicted by sharp metal shrapnel thrusted by the propellant mix that triggers the driver's airbag inflator in the event of an accident.

Like one of the two prior deaths, this case involves a Honda-branded car. In total, automakers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are aware of 139 injured related to the defective Takata airbag inflators. We've previously reported on the latest installment of the saga, which covers 4.7 million vehicles from numerous brands, from General Motors to almost all E46 BMW 3 Series cars ever built.

On a final note, we urge those that own a car from the early 2000s to check on the NHTSA VIN lookup website to find out if their vehicles are due an urgent visit to the nearest dealer service department.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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