Defective Takata airbags: another death reported in Guadeloupe

The death toll continues to rise. The death of yet another motorist on a road in Guadeloupe at the end of March was "linked to the deployment" of a defective airbag from Japanese manufacturer Takata, the Pointe-à-Pitre prosecutor's office announced Monday. The Takata airbag scandal has rocked the automotive sector since 2014, forcing hundreds of thousands of vehicles to be grounded by numerous manufacturers in recent months to replace the equipment, which has caused more than a dozen deaths in France.

"The autopsy confirmed that the death was directly linked to the explosion of the airbag" in an accident that occurred in the town of Moule, Guadeloupe , on March 25, the prosecutor of Pointe-à-Pitre, Caroline Calbo, confirmed to AFP. "We have referred the matter to the investigating judge for involuntary manslaughter" and she "is in the process of closing her investigation into the Takata airbags for relinquishment in favor of the investigating judge of the Jirs (Interregional Specialized Jurisdiction) of Paris," she added.

The Chancellery has requested that all investigations into the consequences of these airbag failures, including those involving unintentional homicides, be brought together at the Paris Jirs. Until Monday's announcement of a new victim linked to these Takata airbags, the Ministry of Transport had recorded 29 accidents resulting in 11 deaths overseas and one in mainland France.

The victim in Guadeloupe, driving a Toyota Hilux, was driving a vehicle that was "not very recent" and "affected" by the recall campaign - Toyota and Mercedes indicated in April that they would have to recall twenty models sold between 2001 and 2018 - told AFP Charles-Henri Coppet, a lawyer who claims to represent "11 families of the deceased and 12 injured linked to explosions of this type" in the overseas territories. It is "too early" to say whether or not the victim had received a letter notifying them of such a recall, said the lawyer, who filed a civil suit.

The accident between the victim's vehicle and a heavy goods vehicle occurred in a known dangerous area, firefighters said on the evening of the incident. The man, "trapped in his vehicle," was "extracted upon the arrival of the firefighters" while he was in cardio-respiratory arrest, according to the same source. Due to a gas that ages poorly, faulty Takata airbags risk exploding, throwing pieces into the driver's face. Their degradation is accelerated in hot and humid climates.