Death toll rises from Takata air bags

Honda reported a person died in Texas last week when the driver's side air bag inflator, supplied by Takata, ruptured in the crash of a 2002 Honda Civic.

It’s the 10th known death in the U.S. from a Takata inflator and the 11th worldwide. More than 100 people have been hurt. The accident occurred in Ft. Bend County, Texas.

This was the first Takata-related fatality since last December, when a South Carolina man named Joel Knight was killed while driving a 2006 Ford Ranger. The inflators ruptured after he crashed into a stray cow, and metal from the inflator cut his neck.

Honda says it mailed multiple recall notices to the Civic owner in this latest incident, but recall repairs were never made.

Takata inflators can explode with too much force and spew shrapnel at drivers and passengers. So far, 14 automakers have recalled 24 million U.S. vehicles in the largest auto recall in the country’s history. About 7.1 million inflators have been replaced.

At least 14 automakers have some vehicles equipped with the defective air bag inflators. Honda has the most vehicles covered by the recall.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has expanded the recall multiple times, but the agency and manufacturers are only slowly installing new inflators that are considered safe.

"Sadly, this is yet another tragic death caused by a product that Takata knew was defective,” said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., a ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.  “And it shows that the current recall efforts are just not getting the job done.  Takata and the automakers have to step up their efforts to locate, notify and fix every impacted car as soon as possible — before anyone else dies."