8th US death due to Takata air bag explosion identified

A boy who was driving a car that crashed near Pittsburgh has been tentatively identified by the government as the eighth death in the U.S. due to an explosive air bag inflator made by auto parts maker Takata, according to federal transportation officials and a state police report.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officials also announced an expansion in the recall of vehicles with Takata airbags, already the largest and most complex recall in the agency’s history. The latest findings could result in the recall of several hundred thousand additional vehicles, officials said.
The appointment of an independent monitor to oversee the company’s compliance with a government consent order on the recalls was also announced.
NHTSA learned of the latest death last week after a lawyer for the victim’s family contacted the agency, NHTSA spokesman Gordon Trowbridge told reporters in a conference call. The car involved was a used 2001 Honda Accord under recall that was owned by a relative of the victim, he said. The victim died at a hospital several days after the crash. Trowbridge declined to provide further information about the death, but a Pennsylvania State Police report says a 13-year-old boy was driving the car in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, when it ran off the road, went down an embankment and struck a fallen tree. The report doesn’t explain why the boy, who was alone, was driving the car.
“The agency has now tentatively concluded that this was likely a rupture-related fatality,” Trowbridge said. The agency plans to examine the vehicle to confirm that conclusion, he said.
A woman in Malaysia was also killed by a rupturing Takata air bag last year, the only known fatality outside the U.S., bringing the global number of deaths to nine. More than 100 other people have been injured by the Takata inflators, which can explode with too much force, sending shrapnel into drivers and passengers.
In the U.S., about 23 million Takata air bag inflators have been recalled on 19 million vehicles sold by 12 auto and truck makers. Many of the air bag deaths and injuries involved low-speed crashes that otherwise would likely have been survivable, Trowbridge said. AP