The internal company documents allegedly show that Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Honda and possibly BMW knew the bags were lethal but wanted to save a few dollars each on their expensive vehicles.
As a result, at least 11 people have been killed, two from Texas, and over 100 people have been injured, many seriously, after their airbags ruptured. Shards of metal were shot into drivers and passengers when canisters with dangerous gases overheated and inflaters exploded..
Wait, aren’t airbags supposed to prevent injuries?
A whopping 42 million vehicles made by 10 manufacturers are ticking time bombs. Removing them has caused the biggest recall in the history of the country, bigger than the
On its web site Takata “apologizes for the widespread concern and inconvenience caused as a result of our inflators.”
On Monday, Takata plead guilty to criminal charges, almost unheard of for a corporation. It also agreed to pay an enormous $1 billion dollar fine.
By comparison, Volkswagen was just fined $4.3 billion, General Motors was fined $900 million and set up an additional $600 million fund to repay victims, and Toyota was fined $1.2 billion as a result of scandals involving emissions cheating, engines that wouldn’t turn off, and engines which suddenly accelerated by themselves.
In addition, three company executives were indicted on criminal charges in January.
One severely injured person, Utah resident Randi Johnston, age 26, attended the hearing in Miami where a federal judge ordered that most of the one billion dollars will go to pay the recall expenses. Ms. Johnston, whose vocal cords were shattered by projectile metal and can only whisper, said that she was stunned by the judge’s decision.
