9th Fatality Blamed on Exploding Takata Airbag Inflator

The ninth fatality apparently caused by an exploding Takata Corp. airbag inflator occurred in July near Pittsburgh, Pa., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported today.

The incident—the eighth occurring in the U.S.—killed the teenage driver of a 2001 Honda Accord coupe. A ninth crash in late 2014 killed a woman in Malaysia. All nine events involved driver-side front airbags in Honda vehicles.

Honda and 10 other vehicle manufacturers are recalling roughly 40 million vehicles worldwide to replace their Takata inflators, including 44 campaigns covering 19 million vehicles in the U.S. The failures appear to be linked to prolonged exposure to high heat and humidity.

Separately, NHTSA says three Japanese carmakers have expanded previously announced U.S. recalls of passenger-side frontal airbags equipped with Takata inflators. The widened campaigns target:

• 2002-2004 CR-V crossovers from Honda
• 2005-2008 Legacy midsize sedans and Outback crossovers from Subaru
• 2005-2008 Mazda6 sedans from Mazda

NHTSA says the three expanded recalls were prompted by ballistic tests conducted by Takata on untriggered airbag inflators removed from scrapped cars.