Vehicle Recall Caused by Defective Takata Airbags
Dec 8, 2016
Austin Personal Injury Lawyers – Perlmutter & Schuelke, PLLC
Austin, TX (Law Firm Newswire) December 8, 2016 – Despite the global auto recall, defective Takata airbags are still a dangerous and contentious issue.
The Takata airbag recall was supposed to deal with exploding airbags that propelled metal shrapnel into the vehicle after an accident, often seriously injuring or killing the driver. Because the damage was severe and the dangers of the Takata air bag not originally understood, some police attending accident scenes thought the driver and passengers had been murdered.
After several accidents and autopsies, police began to realize that airbag shrapnel was responsible for the deaths. The Takata Corporation that made the airbags had allegedly known about the deadly explosions as early as 2004, but did nothing about it. When the truth was exposed, it triggered the largest ever-global vehicle recall in history.
To date, there have been multiple reoccurring vehicle recalls for defective Takata airbags and replacements for the defective replacement parts as well. This is the largest-ever deadly blunder on the part of an automaker that once had a good reputation and was trusted globally for the quality of their products.
“Deaths from Takata airbags are still happening,” indicated Austin personal injury attorney Brookes Schuelke. “In fact, just recently a Texas woman sued American Honda Motor Co. Inc.”
The woman had been seriously injured in a low-impact collision that triggered the propellant in the airbag to explode. The airbags, which rely on highly unstable ammonium nitrate, are still in place in some vehicles and have been cited as the likely cause of at least 16 U.S. deaths and over 150 injuries.
The lawsuit alleges that Takata Corp. has known for more than 20-years that ammonium nitrate is dangerous but, due to its relatively low costs, it was still used as a propellant. The Houston plaintiff said the low-impact accident that triggered the defective airbag to detonate caused injuries to her arms and chest due to flying debris inside her car.
“Just last month, Toyota Motor Corp. initiated a recall of 5.8 million cars in the U.S. and globally that included those vehicles that received replacement parts as a result of a 2010 recall. They also recalled approximately 668,000 vehicles in Japan in September to replace air bag inflators,” said Schuelke, not involved in this case.
Will the plaintiffs suing Takata Corporation win their suits? “It’s a good bet that they will, “ stated Schuelke, “as it appears there is more than enough evidence to prove negligence on their part.”
Learn more at http://www.civtrial.com
Perlmutter & Schuelke, PLLC
206 East 9th Street, Ste. 1511
Austin, TX 78701
Call (512) 476-4944
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