State Glance
Honda, Arizona reach $5 million settlement over air bags
PHOENIX — Honda has agreed to a $5 million settlement with Arizona over allegations that it failed to disclose defects in air bags that led to two deaths there, the state’s top attorney said Wednesday.
Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced the settlement over the faulty airbag systems manufactured by Takata Corp. and used in certain Honda and Acura cars. Under the agreement, roughly $1.7 million will go toward consumer restitution in Arizona. Another $2.1 million will pay for a gift card program incentivizing owners to get their air bags replaced.
“We estimate more than 40,000 of these dangerous airbags are still on the roads in Arizona, and we are pleading with the owners to get their vehicles repaired immediately,” Brnovich said in a statement.
Arizona had declined to be part of a joint $85 million settlement with multiple states awarded in August. That settlement only made payments to the states but nothing for customer restitution, Brnovich’s office said.
Like with the multi-state settlement, Honda said it was not acknowledging any wrongdoing by agreeing to the terms in the Arizona case. It asserts the now-bankrupt Takata deceived several automakers about the safety of its airbags. Takata pleaded guilty in 2017 to federal criminal fraud charges.
“The company has thus far replaced more than 16 million defective Takata airbag inflators in its vehicles and made more than 294 million individual attempts to contact owners and urge them to have their recalled Takata airbag inflators replaced,” Honda said in a statement.
Takata used volatile ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion to inflate air bags in a crash. But the chemical can deteriorate over time when exposed to moisture in the air. The explosion can blow apart a metal canister and hurl shrapnel into the passenger compartment.
The Arizona settlement comes after an Aug. 20 crash involving a 2002 Honda Civic in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa left one person dead. Earlier this month, Honda said its team had inspected the Civic along with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Investigators determined that the inflator in the driver’s side and passenger air bags had ruptured.
Honda said the Civic was recalled in December 2011 for the driver’s side inflator and in November 2014 for the passenger side. According to the automaker, it mailed more than 15 notices to the owners over eight years, but the free repairs were never done. The company said it also made numerous phone calls and even visited the current registered owner’s home and left recall information.
The driver who was killed was not the registered owner of the car, Honda said.
Globally, the inflators have killed at least 26 people and injured more than 300. Problems with Takata’s products touched off the largest string of automotive recalls in U.S. history with around 50 million inflators recalled. About 100 million are being recalled worldwide.
Goodyear man gets probation for disrupting polling place
GOODYEAR — A Goodyear man has been sentenced to six months of probation for disrupting a polling place nearly two years ago.
Arizona prosecutors said 39-yearold Brad Luebke was convicted of videotaping inside a polling place in Goodyear.
They said Luebke entered a polling place at the Desert Springs Community Church in November 2018 with a holstered BB gun and a camera inside the 75-foot limit.
Poll workers explained to Luebke that he needed to remove the items from the polling place in order to vote.
But Luebke refused and when police officers arrived, they found Luebke outside the church with a cellphone camera on a specialized mount with a microphone attached.
Luebke pleaded guilty Tuesday to a violation of the 75-foot limit statute.
A justice of the peace sentenced him to probation and fined him $400.
Phoenix Police: Officers fatally shoot 2 brothers at home
PHOENIX — Phoenix police fatally shot two adult brothers after one of the men pointed a rifle at his sibling and officers during an encounter in a home’s backyard, authorities said Wednesday.
The men have been identified as 44-year-old Emmett Cocreham and 43-year-old George Cocreham.
Police said officers went to the home Tuesday after the brothers’ mother called 911 to report she had barricade herself in her room because one of her sons was acting strangely and she was afraid.
The woman left the home when officers arrived and she told police both sons were yelling and that one had a rifle.
Officers saw two men inside the home with what appeared to be guns and that one had a rifle that he refused to drop when confronted by police after the men went into the backyard.
Both men were fatally shot by two officers after the brother holding the rifle pointed it at police and his sibling, authorities said.
A rifle and a BB gun were recovered at the residence, according to police.
Police said the department will release details including body-worn camera footage, 911 calls and other evidence from the incident within the next two weeks.