Fatal Accident In Louisiana Could Be Seventh Linked To Takata Airbag Recall

by Cameron Aubernon

June 11th, 2015 9:59 AM

fatal accident in louisiana could be seventh linked to takata airbag recall

A fatal accident in Louisiana involving a Takata-equipped Honda may be the seventh fatality linked to the supplier’s ongoing airbag crisis.

Kylan Langlinais of Lafayette, La. lost her life in early April of this year when her 2005 Honda Civic crashed into a utility pole at 4 a.m., Bloomberg says, at which point the driver-side airbag catastrophically deployed, spraying metal shrapnel throughout the cabin.

As noted in the complaint filed in federal court Monday, a recall notice for her Honda arrived in the mail two days after the crash, two days before her passing.

The most recent fatality linked to Takata’s airbags came in January, when Carlos Solis IV of Spring, Texas lost his life following a crash in his 2002 Honda Accord, marking the fourth fatal accident in the United States reported by Honda prior to Langlinais’ accident. Three other confirmed deaths, another under investigation, and at least 60 injuries were also reported by the automaker for the U.S. market, while another fatality was confirmed in Malaysia.

The report of a new accident possibly linked to Takata comes nearly a month after the supplier admitted as many as 34 million vehicles in the U.S. could be affected, leading to one of the largest product recalls in U.S. history.

[Photo credit: Takata]

#Airbags #Civic #FederalLawsuits #Honda #KylanLanglinais #Lafayette #Louisiana #MY2005 #ProductRecalls #Takata

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8 comments

Volt 230 on Jun 11, 2015

How ironic that the one safety device that is supposed to save your life, ends up killing you.

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- Jjster6 on Jun 11, 2015
  
  A seat belt is supposed to save your life. Many people are too lazy to put them on so the gubmint said the automakers had to install explosive devices in the steering wheels and dashboards of cars.
  
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APaGttH on Jun 11, 2015

I suspect the fatality number is grossly under reported given the nature of the type of crashes involved. I would suspect they would have to be marginally survivable to begin with, and if the Claymore mine goes off, that only adds to the injuries.

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- Jpolicke on Jun 11, 2015
  
  I suspect you're right about under-reporting. In this case, the family hadn't even suspected the airbag until they got the recall notice. I wonder how many cars were carted off to the crusher with the evidence obliterated.
  
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- APaGttH on Jun 11, 2015
  
  @jpolicke If someone shows up in the ER a breathing, quivering piece of hamburger, no one is really going to question a few stray pieces of metal and plastic embedded in their flesh - if they didn't know to look. The ones where this is becoming a glaring problem is the ones where the victim was clearly in a survivable crash, and the airbag failure was so catastrophic that the injuries don't match the impact.
  
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- Lou_BC on Jun 11, 2015
  
  @APaGttH - a face, neck or chest full of shrapnel in the event of a death would be reported in an autopsy. The question would be whether or not the Pathologist would see enough of those shrapnel injuries/fatalities to spot a trend and report it. I do not know whether or not all automotive death reports are automatically filed with the NHTSA. Same can be said of ER or OR surgical reports on injuries found in a crash. Insurance companies would be entitled to filing a request for disclosure of information in relation to a claim. I don't know if those injuries would automatically get submitted to NHTSA. I know that with police investigations injuries and cause of death do become part of their files. Interestingly enough smart defence lawyers will search out for causes of death that weren't directly attributed to a crash. An example is a serious multi-trauma victim dying but medically may of been from hospital acquired infection. A report saying that a neck full of shrapnel would be effective in shifting blame from the insurer to a 3rd party.
  
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Inside Looking Out on Jun 11, 2015

Still Hondas are one of the most safest cars on the road.

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415s30 on Jun 17, 2015

Just had my CRV recall done today

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