inflators in Honda vehicles were linked to least
four injuries and a death, the automaker quietly
requested a design change and did not notify U.S.
regulators, Honda confirmed in response to
inquiries
Honda Motor Co asked supplier Takata Corp to
produce a “fail-safe” airbag inflator, according to
Takata presentations and internal memos
The previously undisclosed redesign could make
Honda and Takata more vulnerable in more than
100 pending federal lawsuits and dozens more
state suits, according to several legal experts and
an attorney suing the companies. The request
shows that Honda understood the safety risks
posed by the inflators long before it started
expanding recalls by the millions in 2014, the
attorneys and law professors said.
U.S. law requires automakers to disclose safety
risks and actions to prevent them to the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
But Honda spokesman Chris Martin said the
redesign did not require notice to regulators
because the safety risk involved Takata
manufacturing errors rather than a specific
design defect.
Honda requested the redesign to “protect against
the possibility of future manufacturing errors – it
was not an acknowledgement of a larger design
flaw in the inflators,” Martin wrote.
Honda started installing the modified inflators in
some, but not all, vehicles in 2011 and continues
to do so today, Martin said. Honda expanded
recalls as it became aware of more defects, he
said.
The fail-safe modification – outlined in Takata
technical documents and internal presentations
between 2009 and 2011 and confirmed by
Honda – added vents in the inflator to channel
pressure from an explosion away from a driver’s
neck and torso.
NHTSA spokesman Bryan Thomas declined to
comment on the design change or whether
Honda had a legal obligation to notify the agency.
Takata confirmed in a statement that it “tested
and deployed” several versions of the redesigned
inflator “at the request of an automotive
customer.” The supplier declined to answer more
detailed questions and declined to respond to
Honda’s explanation of the reasons for the
change.
Takata has previously acknowledged that some of
the ruptures were connected to manufacturing
errors at its factories.
Honda is Takata’s biggest customer, and the
automaker owns a small stake in the airbag
supplier.
LEGAL PERIL
Peter Henning, a corporate law professor at
Wayne State University in Detroit, called Honda’s
distinction between manufacturing and design
problems a “technical argument” that is at odds
with the law and regulatory practice.
“You can’t say, ‘It’s a supplier problem, not ours,
so we don’t have to talk about it,” he said. “They
are responsible for every part on their car and
also responsible to report a problem with any part
on that car.”
John Kristensen – a Los Angeles product liability
plaintiff’s lawyer who has worked on major
product defect lawsuits against Toyota and other
manufacturers – agreed that the cause or type
of a safety risk is irrelevant to legal notification
requirements.
Honda officials “made a determination of a
defect when they asked for the fail-safe design,”
said Kristensen. “They had an obligation to tell
the government back in 2009. Good luck
defending that.”
In many states, plaintiffs alleging design defects
are required to prove that companies could have
used a safer design, said Rob Ammons, a Houston
lawyer who has represented clients suing Honda
and Takata in three cases alleging that inflator
defects caused death or injury.
“Obviously, this would be significant evidence that
one existed, certainly as early as 2009,” said
Ammons, who has settled two of the cases and
has one pending.
Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the
University of South Carolina and an expert in
automotive safety and regulation said that Honda
could make an argument that “it’s always
improving its products – for instance, that airbags
are getting safer every year,” he said. “I’m not
sure how a jury would approach or examine
that.”
The federal cases against Takata, Honda and
other automakers have been consolidated in a
Miami court. They involve individual claims for
injuries and deaths and proposed class actions
seeking to represent millions of customers who
say their vehicles lost value. Trials in both types
of federal cases could start as soon as 2017,
according to court filings.
Honda has reached confidential settlements in
some personal-injury lawsuits, court records
showed.
AN EFFECTIVE FIX
Since 2008, Honda has recalled 8.5 million vehicles
to replace defective inflators, including 2.3 million
in February. All but 875,000 of those recalls came
in 2014 or later.
Takata inflators in Honda vehicles have been
linked to nine deaths and more than 90 injuries
in the U.S., according to NHTSA.
Seven of those deaths and 70 injuries have
occurred since Takata began producing the new
inflator design for Honda starting in late 2010.
The redesign worked as intended, Martin said. All
of the deaths and injuries happened in vehicles
with older inflator designs.
(Editing by Joe White and Brian Thevenot)
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