Louisiana woman may be 7th Takata air bag-linked death
DETROIT - A Louisiana woman who died after her Honda crashed on April 5 may be the seventh person killed by faulty Takata air bags.
A lawsuit filed in federal court Monday by the family of 22-year-old Kylan Langlinais says they received a recall notice two days after the crash. She died at a hospital on April 9.
The lawsuit alleges that Langlinais' right carotid artery was severed by shrapnel from an exploding driver's side air bag. It says Langlinais was driving a 2005 Honda Civic in Lafayette about 4 a.m. when the car hit a utility pole. According to the lawsuit, she had no other serious injuries.
Honda and Takata are named as defendants. Honda says it's gathering information from family members. A message was left for a Takata spokesman.
In May, it was announced that the Japanese airbag manufacturer agreed to declare airbags in approximately 33.8 million U.S. vehicles defective.
In a crash, the air bag can deploy with too much force and pelt unsuspecting drivers or passengers with fragments from a metal inflator, causing injury or even death. In addition to the deaths, at least 105 have been injured.
The recall effort has so far been complicated by the massive number of vehicles needing fixing. At its estimated rate of production, it will take 2.5 years to crank out enough to fix all the affected vehicles.