The death of a woman in a recent car crash in Louisiana is likely the seventh fatality linked to Takata’s defective air-bag inflators in the U.S., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said.
Kylan Langlinais, 22, got an air bag recall notice for her 2005 Honda Civic after the April 5 crash. She died two days later, according to a complaint filed Monday in federal court in Lafayette, Louisiana.
“After examination of the vehicle and other evidence, NHTSA has concluded that a ruptured Takata air-bag inflator is likely to have been involved,” Mark Rosekind, the agency’s administrator, said in an e-mailed statement Friday.
Takata agreed May 19 under pressure from regulators to expand its recalls to cover about 34 million airbag inflators, the largest product-safety recall in U.S. history. The defect can cause the bags to deploy with too much force, sending metal shards into the passenger compartment.
“This tragedy underscores the necessity of the actions NHTSA is taking to ensure that every vehicle on America’s roads has a safe air bag,” Rosekind said.
