Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (HMC Quick QuoteHMC - Free Report) has confirmed that the driver-side Takata airbag of a vehicle that crashed in Malaysia on Sep 24, 2016, had ruptured. The crash resulted in the fourth confirmed death related to these airbags in Malaysia this year. However, it is not yet clear whether the death was caused by the airbag rupture.

The vehicle that crashed was a Honda City of model year 2009, which was covered by a recall announced by the company in Jul 2015. However, the repair of the vehicle was not completed, which led to the rupture. The passenger-side airbag of the vehicle did not rupture.

Defective Takata airbags have resulted in multiple recalls by automakers. When these inflators explode, they send metal fragments shooting into the car that may injure or kill occupants. This has resulted in 14 confirmed deaths and more than 100 injuries.

Earlier this month, Honda announced the recall of 668,000 vehicles in Japan due to faulty Takata airbag inflators. This is part of a wider recall that was announced earlier.

Per Consumer Reports, the number of vehicles that need to be recalled by 2019 for defective Takata airbag inflators is over 100 million globally. This is the largest auto recall in the U.S.

Seventeen automakers, including BMW, Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA Quick QuoteTSLA - Free Report) , Toyota Motor Corporation (TM Quick QuoteTM - Free Report) and General Motors Co. (GM Quick QuoteGM - Free Report) , have been affected by the aforementioned defect.

HONDA MOTOR Price

 

HONDA MOTOR Price | HONDA MOTOR Quote

Confidential from Zacks

Beyond this Analyst Blog, would you like to see Zacks' best recommendations that are not available to the public? Our Executive VP, Steve Reitmeister, knows when key trades are about to be triggered and which of our experts has the hottest hand. Click to see them now>>