Takata airbags continue to wreak havoc.
A lawyer in Sydney has announced a class-action lawsuit against Japanese auto manufacturers Honda, Mazda, and Toyota over the ongoing Takata airbag recall, based on Australian consumer laws that entitle consumers to refunds for a product if it has an issue that renders it unsafe and isn’t rectified within a reasonable timeframe.
Lawyer Damian Scattini is filing his suit following the death of a 58-year old local earlier this month, in an accident that’s been ruled as likely due to the Takata airbag fitted in his Honda CR-V. Authorities have said that the man’s death was due to being struck in the neck by a piece of shrapnel, that most probably came from the casing of the airbag’s inflator. The inflator issue has been at the crux of the Takata airbag recall, the largest recall of its kind in history.
In February this year, Takata pleaded guilty to fraud and agreed to fork out US$1-billion as a penalty for concealing the evidence that their airbag inflators were faulty. The issue is prevalent in older cars, where time has caused the inflators to degrade, resulting in the inflator casing shattering when the airbag is deployed. Some 100-million cars have been recalled globally due to this issue thus far.
An Australian subsidiary for Toyota released a statement reading that it had put processes in place to rectify the inflator issue, and that sorting out this problem remains a top priority for the company. Honda and Mazda did not respond for comment. Statistics recently released by Honda have mentioned that it has replaced about 70% of the affected airbags in its cars locally, which is about twice the industry average thus far.
It’s been revealed to the media that the 2007 Honda CR-V that claimed the life of a local man this month was on the recall list, and that notices had been sent to the owner some five times over the past 16-months. Honda continues to replace about 5000 inflators every week, peaking at 10,000 inflators swapped out weekly at maximum capacity.
We at CarShowroom cannot stress enough that if your car is affected by the Takata airbag recall, please get in touch with your local dealer and have the airbags replaced as soon as possible.
For more information on Toyota, Honda, or Mazda, check out our Showroom.
