Daily Times

KUALA LUMPUR: An airbag made by the Japanese firm – Takata – ruptured after a crash in Malaysia and killed the driver, Honda said on Wednesday.

“The Takata single stage driver’s airbag inflator ruptured in a crash in Malaysia,” Honda confirmed in a statement but added that no official cause of death has yet been determined on Saturday.

The carmaker said that its Honda City of 2009 was included in the recall notice of July 2015 but records showed that the repair was never completed. In June, a similar incident happened in a car crash involving a 2005 Honda City.

Tokyo-based Takata has been hammered by a defect in its airbag inflators – linked to at least 15 deaths and scores of injuries worldwide. About 100 million Takata airbags have been recalled. The defect can send metal and plastic shrapnel from the inflator canister hurtling toward drivers and passengers when an airbag is deployed.

Last Thursday, Mitsubishi Motors recalled 47,800 cars in Russia to change Takata’s airbags. Honda recalled 147,894 vehicles in Malaysia in June to replace the deadly front passenger airbag inflators – part of a global programme which involves more than 50 million recalls.

In 2014, ‘Honda City’ cars were also involved in a car crash when a pregnant Malaysian died after the Takata-made airbag malfunctioned.