Takata Corp. is headquartered in Japan and manufactures millions of airbags installed in American vehicles. The company has agreed to recall 33.8 million airbags. That number doubles the already massive recall.
A consent agreement was entered into between Takata and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). There is a federal class action injury lawsuit pending in the Miami Federal District Court related to the defective airbags.
The agreement with NHTSA and Takata was reduced to an agreed order in the federal district court class action case. There are 10 automobile manufacturers that installed Takata airbags. According to a recent Chicago Law Daily Bulletin report, 17 million of those vehicles with Takata airbags are in the United States.
The class action lawsuit arises because of the defect in the airbags when deployed. The claim is that there is a defective airbag inflator that when activated causes such force that it injures drivers and passengers.
The airbags were equipped with a metal container with a small chemical charge that caused the airbags to inflate on impact. However, the defect is such that when a crash does occur, the canister ruptures and causes shrapnel-like particles to be injected into the bodies of drivers and passengers sitting in front of the airbags.
The original lawsuit claims that as far back as the mid-1990s, Takata was using ammonium nitrate as a propellant. Because of the use of ammonium nitrate, it is claimed that compound increased the explosiveness of the airbags. The class action case remains in the discovery stage under the multidistrict litigation system in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
This airbag recall is particularly noteworthy inasmuch as it is at the top of the list as the largest product recall ever in the United States.
In re: Takata Airbag Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2599 (U.S. Dist. Ct. for the Southern District of Florida)
Kreisman Law Offices has been handling automotive product liability lawsuits, pharmaceutical product defect cases, dietary supplement lawsuits and medical device litigation for more than 38 years in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas, including Westchester, Lemont, Long Grove, Aurora, St. Charles, Lincolnshire, Lincolnwood, Lockport, Plainfield, Worth, Blue Island and Skokie, Illinois.
Related blog posts:
$150 Million Jury Verdict for the Death of Four-Year-Old Boy Killed When a Jeep Exploded After Being Rear-Ended
Class Action Lawsuit is Being Sought Against Toyota for Electric Power Steering Defect
$11 Million Jury Verdict in Toyota Design Defect Case