Honda Reports Another Takata Airbag Accident in Florida

At least six deaths have been traced back to the Takata airbag defect. Drivers who get into airbag deployment accidents have essentially been killed verses saved by the airbag unit as it shoots shards of metal right through the airbag that’s meant to save that consumer. The allegations surrounding this potentially hazardous airbag unit have led to millions of recalls. No company has been harder hit by those recalls than Honda. Both the head of Honda North America and the man in charge of safety at Takata testified before the U.S. Senate in late 2014.

Honda vowed to better the situation. Takata vowed to stand their ground.

It’s an issue that has stopped making frequent headlines, however, a crash on the first day of spring has been traced back to the faulty airbag inflators from Takata. During the entire public investigation process, Honda has appeared to be much more cooperative than Takata vis-à-vis the airbags, recalls and taking responsibility. On March 20th a 2003 Honda Civic crashed in Florida. Investigators, including police have traced a driver injury to a faulty inflator. The location of this accident shouldn’t come as a large surprise. Takata airbag inflators problems have appeared to be augmented in the high humidity regions of the southwestern U.S. and territories. However, to this point, Takata doesn’t know why higher humidity potentially caused their airbags to explode in the face of drivers. However, this crash wouldn’t have even made national news headlines without the efforts on the part of Honda. The automaker put out a press release about the accident in a showing of transparency.

Part of that release, dated April 13th read in part, “American Honda has confirmed that the Takata driver’s airbag inflator ruptured in the crash of a 2003 Honda Civic on March 20, 2015 in Florida. This crash resulted in an injury to the driver of the vehicle. Our thoughts and sympathies are with the driver and his family during this difficult time.” Honda’s release went on to state that it has reported the crash information to the NHTSA and the driver of the Honda received three notices to have the vehicle recall repair work completed.

Certainly this decision on the part of Honda to show an increase in transparency comes at an important time for the automaker. Honda admitted in 2014 that they underreported serious injury and fatality accidents by as many as 1,729 dating back to 2003. With the NHTSA likely watching closely, Honda has taken a step in the direction of increased communication as it relates to accidents.