Airbag death lawsuit focuses on nitrate
Attorney for family of Fort Bend teenager killed says compound turns safety device into dangerous bomb
Saying they want to save others from dangerous airbags, the relatives of a Fort Bend County teen killed by a recalled airbag during a crash are suing the device’s manufacturer, Honda and others connected to the case.
The family’s product liability lawsuit filed Tuesday in Harris County focuses on airbag maker Takata’s use of explosive ammonium nitrate in its airbags and the failure by others to protect Huma Hanif, 17.
The teen was the second person in the Houston area and the 10th person in the United States to be killed by an airbag in a car crash.
Mo Aziz, one of several lawyers representing the family, said ammonium nitrate turns what should be a safety device into a dangerous bomb.
“The key issue in all these cases involving these airbags is not the recall,” Aziz said during a Wednesday news conference flanked by the teen’s father, sister and older brother.
“The real issue is that since 1995, Takata has admitted in public filings that ammonium nitrate can detonate under certain circumstances, and we know that over the course of history, ammonium nitrate has detonated and has caused severe death and destruction.”
The teen, who was driving a 2002 Honda Civic, rear-ended another vehicle that was legally stopped on March 31 along FM 762 at Gonyo Lane in central Fort Bend County southeast of Richmond. When the airbag deployed, a metal shard inside struck the young woman’s neck. She died at the scene. “Ammonium nitrate encompassed within the airbag detonated and caused
“(Huma Hanif ) exited her vehicle and walked around holding her bleeding neck until she collapsed on the roadway, eventually succumbing to her injuries. She died an agonizing and horrific death.” Lawsuit Hanif ’s family filed Tuesday
the inflator to disintegrate into shrapnel that propelled directly towards the decedent,” the lawsuit said. “Decedent exited her vehicle and walked around holding her bleeding neck until she collapsed on the roadway, eventually succumbing to her injuries. She died an agonizing and horrific death.”
The lawsuit names as defendants: TK Holdings, the U.S. arm of airbag manufacturer Takata; American Honda Motor Co.; Westside Hummer, the Houston dealership that sold the used car; Nizari Group, which runs a Discount Lube and Tune that provided repairs to the vehicle; and the Richmond woman with whom Hanif collided in the wreck.
Filing the lawsuit are the teen’s father, Muhammad Hanif; mother, Shamim Bano; and brother, Faizan Hanif, who is the representative of his sister’s estate.
Besides Aziz, the family is represented by lawyers Scott P. Armstrong, Nomaan Husain, Omar Khawaja and Mohammed “Ali” Zakaria. Used in explosives
The focus on ammonium nitrate sets the Harris County lawsuit apart from other legal actions that have been filed across the country over the airbag-related deaths, Aziz said.
Device inflators in the airbag are powered by the chemical, which deteriorates after prolonged exposure to airborne moisture and high temperatures. Takata is the only inflator-maker that uses the volatile compound, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Ammonium nitrate is also used in explosive devices. The chemical was responsible for the 2013 West Fertilizer Co. explosion in the central Texas town north of Waco that killed 15 people, injured more than 150 and destroyed dozens of the community’s homes and buildings.
Takata is the subject of a worldwide recall affecting nearly 30 million cars.
Honda is among 14 automakers that have recalled about 24 million U.S. vehicles — including the one Huma Hanif was driving — for airbag inflator replacement. It is the largest automotive recall in U.S. history, though only about 27 percent of the recalled devices have been replaced.
More than 100 people have been hurt by the inflators, which can explode with enough force to blow apart a metal canister and send sharp pieces into drivers and passengers.
A part slightly larger than a fingernail fatally severed Huma Hanif’s jugular vein and carotid artery in what should have been a minor traffic accident, Fort Bend County sheriff ’s investigators concluded.
A faulty airbag inflator has also been blamed for the death of 35-year-old Carlos Solis of Spring in a January 2015 fender-bender. Although the damage to his 2002 Honda Accord was minor, the airbag explosion blew a chunk of metal into his neck.
Honda officials have confirmed that Solis’ vehicle was part of the recall and that the car — purchased less than a year before his crash — was never repaired.
Faizan Hanif said more should be done to protect motorists like his sister.
“I would also like to urge Takata and Honda to take further steps to address the legal problems associated with their airbags,” he said at Wednesday’s news conference. Repairs not completed
The lawsuit accuses Westside Hummer, which sold the Hanif vehicle in 2011, of having “actual knowledge of the dangers associated” with the airbag because of global recalls and alleges that Discount Lube is liable for “negligence during the inspection of the vehicle” in June 2015.
Hanif’s Civic was first recalled in 2011, and repairs were never completed despite six notices, according to NHTSA.
Honda said multiple notices were mailed out to registered owners of the Civic, including the current registered owner, American Honda Motor Co. has said previously.
“Our records indicate that the recall repair was never completed,” Honda said in the statement.
A company spokesman has declined to specify, however, whether the “owners” of the Civic were members of the Hanif family.
Aziz said his clients never received any recall notices. ‘Nightmare for us’
Huma Hanif lived in Richmond and was scheduled to graduate in May from George Ranch High School in the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District. She may have been headed home two months ago about 4:30 p.m. when the accident happened about 2 ½ miles from the campus.
The third-born of four close siblings, the teen wanted to follow in the footsteps of her older sister, Uzma Hanif, who is a nurse. The night before the wreck, the high school senior and Faizan Hanif had worked on her application to Wharton County Junior College.
“We used to shop together, go to spa and hang out,” said Uzma Hanif, who attended the Wednesday news conference but is not a party in the lawsuit. “This tragedy was a nightmare for us, and it is so hard to believe that she’s not with us anymore.”