She was driving her Honda Civic to go get a flu shot when a truck took a left-hand turn in front of her. This California woman ran head long into the truck. She would later pass due to her injuries, but some question if the collision was the cause of her wounds. The airbag that was supposed to save her life was defective, and now government officials are wondering why her car had yet to be repaired.
What is Taking Takata Recall Repairs So Long?
While investigating this California woman’s death, authorities spoke to her son. They asked him if his mother had ever received notification from Honda that her car was a part of the infamous Takata recall. The man answered that she had never talked to him about it. In the end, authorities felt that they could not confirm if the woman knew about the recall on her car, but the circumstances highlight a big problem.
Four months ago, government officials warned that 313,000 older model Honda’s and Acura’s have been found to contain Takata airbags with a 50 percent chance of malfunctioning. Out of those thousands, only 13,000 have been brought in for repairs. That means hundreds of thousands of cars in the U.S. have a 50 percent chance of injuring or killing their owners if they get into a car crash. And this California woman owned one of those cars.
Honda says they are working on notifying car owners that their cars could be dangerous, but they are running into several road blocks. The most dangerous cars among the Takata recall are over a decade old, and have passed between multiple owners. This can make it difficult to contact owners, so in addition to letters, Honda has sent flyers, posted Facebook ads, made telephone calls, and in one instance, showed up to a car owner’s house. However, these efforts still don’t seem to be enough.
Contacting car owners seems to be one of the greatest delays in fixing these deadly defective airbags, but is there a solution? What other methods do you think Honda can use to get cars into the repair shop? Tell us on Facebook and Twitter, and keep following our Miami defective products lawyers on this blog.
