The Department of Transportation continues to ask for the news media and public’s assistance to find vehicles with unrepaired Takata airbags, after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed a crash fatality in Riverside County, California is tied to a rupture of a recalled Takata air bag inflator.
The victim died after suffering injuries in a crash on Friday, Sept. 30. The vehicle involved was a 2001 Honda Civic first recalled in 2008. Records show that the recall repair was never completed. The vehicle is included in a list of Honda and Acura vehicles which have been identified as being a substantially higher risk. These airbag inflators in these vehicles have a manufacturing defect which increases the potential for a dangerous rupture upon deployment. These ruptures are more likely to happen in vehicles that have spent significant periods of time in areas of high humidity such as Florida, Texas, parts of the Gulf Coast and Southern California. These vehicles show rupture rates as high as fifty percent in a laboratory setting.
The higher-risk inflators are in the following 2001-2003 Honda and Acura vehicles:
- 2001-002 Honda Civic
- 2001-2002 Honda Accord
- 2002-2003 Acura 3.2TL
- 2002 Honda CR-V
- 2002 Honda Odyssey
- 2003 Acura 3.2CL
- 2003 Honda Pilot
