Malaysian woman dies after airbag ruptures in accident

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – A Malaysian woman has died after the airbag in her Honda City vehicle ruptured in a minor collision, a safety official said Monday.

The incident Sunday came days after Honda Malaysia announced an additional recall of more than 145,000 vehicles to replace defective front passenger airbag inflators.

Fire and rescue official Rosdi Hainan said the driver-side airbag had ruptured when he arrived at the site of the accident, and the victim was bleeding from her chest.

Rosdi said the woman died a short time later.

Honda Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. said in a statement that it confirmed that the airbag had ruptured in the accident. It said the vehicle had been included in three Takata airbag recalls but the repairs had not been completed.

There have been massive recalls involving Takata airbags in millions of vehicles around the world because of faulty inflator and propellant devices that may deploy improperly in an accident, shooting out metal fragments that can injure or kill.

Worldwide, 11 known deaths and more than 100 injuries have been blamed on exploding Takata-made airbag inflators.

In November last year, a 43-year-old pregnant Malaysian housewife was killed after a collision activated the airbag in her Honda. Honda also confirmed two other deaths that are linked to airbag issues in April and May this year.

___

This story has been corrected to fix model name to City from Civic.