French woman dies after defective Takata airbag explodes in her face while driving
A 40-year-old woman tragically dies from fatal injuries caused by a Takata airbag explosion in her Citroën C3. This incident marks another airbag-related tragedy for the model in Europe.
The 40-year-old woman was driving alongside her son when the airbag exploded in her face, causing several fatal injuries and, eventually, her death. Her son, who was with her at the time, survived the accident but is suffering from severe injuries.
This is not the first time the Japanese brand, Takaka, is guilty of airbag related car accidents, as the company presents a record of defective airbags.
Woman dies due to a faulty Citroën C3's airbag
On June 19, after the explosion while in a highway northeast of France, the impact of metal fragments and broken crystal killed the French 40-year-old woman, and left her 14-year-old son with severe injuries.
Authorities have linked this incident directly with Takata's airbags faulty inflation system, as over time and under certain humidity and temperature conditions, can degrade to the point of posing a serious danger to vehicle occupants.
Stellantis orders recall of affected vehicles
After the accident, Stellantis Group, the owner of Citroën, ordered a recall of over 400,000 vehicles in Europe that still have this faulty airbag system. This measure mainly affects C3 and DS3 models manufactured between 2014 and 2019, which, until recently, had only received periodic inspections.
Citroën CEO Xavier Chardon, as urged owners to contact the offices for a completely free of charge, highlighting that these vehicles should not be driven until the service has been carried out.
Takata's airbags: a series of fatal accidents
This is the second fatal incident linked to Takata's faulty airbags in France in the year, and the first one north of the country. Since 2016, at least 17 people have died in France due to this problem, which has also affected other car companies such as:
- BMW
- Volkswagen
- Mercedes-Benz
- Toyota.
