New Mexico Sues Takata, Carmakers Over Flawed Airbag Inflators
New Mexico has sued Takata Corp. for misleading the public about the safety of its airbag inflators.
#legal
New Mexico has sued Takata Corp. for misleading the public about the safety of its airbag inflators. The lawsuit also names 15 carmakers that installed the Takata devices in their vehicles.
The complaint seeks civil penalties of $5,000 for each defective device that entered the state, plus $500 for each day Takata and the carmakers concealed the extent of the problem.
Hawaii and the Virgin Islands made similar charges against Takata in lawsuits last spring. Observers predict a wave of new state and U.S. territory complaints following Takata’s $1 billion settlement of criminal charges that the company conspired to hide defects that make its inflators prone to explode when triggered in a crash.
Takata inflators have been blamed for 11 fatalities in the U.S. and six more overseas.
RELATED CONTENT
-
Grand Jury Indicts Former FCA Executive In Union Payoff Scheme
A former labor relations executive at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV has been charged with making more than $2.2 million in illegal payments to himself and a United Auto Workers union official in Detroit.
-
U.S. Justice Dept. Asks VW to Delay Diesel Cheating Report
The U.S. Dept. of Justice has asked Volkswagen AG not to release findings of an independent probe into the German carmaker's diesel emission cheating scandal.
-
Tesla’s Autopilot Feature Deemed Partly to Blame in Fatal Crash
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has concluded that Tesla Inc.’s semi-autonomous Autopilot feature was partly to blame for a crash 15 months ago that killed one of the carmaker’s customers.