Takata airbag killed private ‘repairman’
deTroIT: Another person has been killed in the United States by an exploding Takata airbag inflater, but this death was not the result of a crash.
Ramon V. Kuffo, 81, of Hialeah, Florida, was working inside a 2001 Honda Accord using a hammer when the airbag inflater ruptured, on June 18, 2016. A medical examiner ruled his death accidental due to head trauma, according to a Hialeah police report.
It’s the 12th US death attributed to the faulty inflaters and 17th worldwide, including five in Malaysia.
Takata inflaters can explode with too much force when exposed to prolonged airborne moisture and hot-and-cold temperature cycles.
If that happens, the inflaters can blow apart a metal canister and shoot out shrapnel which can kill or injure people. More than 180 people have been hurt in the United States alone.
The problem touched off the largest automotive recall in US history involving up to 69 million inflaters and 42 million vehicles.
Honda was Takata’s biggest customer before the problems surfaced. Last month, Takata filed for bankruptcy protection in both Japan and the United States and most of its assets were bought by rival Key Safety Systems.
According to police, Kuffo was in the backyard of his home near Miami, working on a silver 2001 Honda Accord, when a neighbour heard a loud bang. The neighbour went outside and found Kuffo sitting in the passenger seat of the car unconscious and bleeding from his face. Kuffo was taken to a trauma centre, where he died the next day. Both airbags had inflated.
Honda released some details of the death on Monday and said it only recently found out about it.
The company has not been able to inspect the car and is relying on police photos to make its determination, Honda spokesman Chris Martin said.
The victim, who police said was not the car’s owner, was working on the interior of the car with a hammer and had taken apart the car’s centre console, but it was not clear what he was trying to fix.
It was also not clear why the airbag deployed, but police photos show the metal driver’s side inflater ruptured and shot out fragments, Honda said.
The car’s ignition switch was on, so the airbag would have been ready in case of a crash, according to Honda.
Martin noted that there is a deceleration sensor that activates the airbags mounted on the wall between the engine and passenger compartment.
“The rupture most likely contributed to his death,” Martin said.
The 2001 Accord has one of the most dangerous types of Takata driver’s side airbag inflaters.
Laboratory tests show they have as high as a 50% chance of blowing apart in a crash.
Honda urged owners who have received recall notices to get repairs made as soon as possible, especially those with the most dangerous type of inflater.
Those models are the 2001 and 2002 Accord and Civic, the 2002 CR-V and Odyssey, the 2002 and 2003 Acura 3.2 TL, the 2003 Acura 3.2 CL and the 2003 Pilot.
Honda says it has sufficient sup- plies of replacement inflators available to fix all of its recalled vehicles.
“It’s essential to safety that highrisk inflaters are replaced immediately,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a statement.
Honda says its service procedures recommend disconnecting the battery when working on the airbag system. Owners can go online and subscribe to Honda service manuals and find out proper procedures for many repairs.
Multiple owners of the car were mailed 12 recall notices over seven years.
“Our records indicate that the recall repair was never completed on this vehicle,” Honda said in a statement. — AP