[dropcap]N[/dropcap]ot less than seven deaths and close to 200 injuries have been linked to airbags explosion, while safety experts believe there might be thousands of unreported cases all over the world. Find below few examples of victims of safety device, which turned to hidden bombs in automobiles
Ashley Parham, 18, in Oklahoma City: This victim, who was driving a 2001 Honda Accord, was killed in a minor parking lot accident in 2009 while picking up her brother at school. Parham suffered a gaping cut to her neck from shrapnel shot from the car’s air bag.
Gurjit Rathore, 33-year-old Virginia mother of three died in a 2001 Honda Accord. Rathore died in 2009 in an accident involving a mail truck. Her family alleged that the air bag exploded in her face, severing arteries in her neck and causing her to bleed to death.
Devin Xu, a 47-year-old man from Rosemead, Calif: Another victim who was killed in 2013 while driving a 2002 Acura TL sedan in a parking lot in 2013. The coroner’s report cited “facial trauma due to foreign object inside airbag” as the cause of death.
Law Suk Leh, a 43-year-old: A Malaysian woman, this victim was in her final week of pregnancy, when, while driving her 2003 Honda Civic, was killed by exploding shrapnel. The sad incident occurred in July of 2014, after hitting another car on the island of Borneo. The post mortem report showed she died from a “severe puncture wound on the neck.”
Hien Tran, a 51-year-old Orlando woman, Driving a 2001 Honda Accord, Tran died in October 2014 after her car was in an accident in late September. Shards from the ruptured Takata-made air bag killed her, according to her autopsy report, which cited plastic and metal fragments throughout the car’s driver compartment.
Unnamed victim: On April 27, 2015, Sen Bill Nelson, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Technology reported that Takata has informed him of a sixth death caused by ruptured air bags, but neither Takata nor Nelson identified the victim.
Rich Newsome, an attorney representing seven victims of faulty Takata air bags, including Corey Burdick, a Florida man disfigured and blinded in one eye by shrapnel from an exploding air bag in May, called recent public outcry and government reactions that followed as a victory for consumer protection.
But, he added: “Today’s expanded recall is already too little, too late for people who died or injured and their families. Hopefully today’s news will push the agenda for recall reform to the forefront and result in legislation that will help NHTSA identify these kinds of defects before regular families with defective cars are needlessly harmed in the future.”
