Takata: Another fatal accident linked to a defective airbag in Guadeloupe

A month and a half after the incident, the courts have linked the road death of a Guadeloupean driver to a Takata airbag. In a statement released Monday, the Pointe-à-Pitre prosecutor's office indicated that the accident, which took place in late March, was "linked to the deployment" of a defective airbag from the Japanese manufacturer, a new episode in a scandal that, until this tragedy, had caused eleven deaths overseas and one in mainland 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 (Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction) of Paris ," which is where the investigations into these failures due to the presence in the airbag of a gas that ages poorly, particularly in hot and humid climates, are grouped together.

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 –, Charles-Henri Coppet, a lawyer who claims to be defending "eleven families of the deceased and twelve injured linked to explosions of this type" in the overseas territories, told AFP.

It is "too early" to say whether or not the victim had received a letter notifying such a recall, said the council, which has filed a civil suit. This is an essential provision, which concerns nearly 250,000 vehicles , but which may prove insufficient, given the difficulties the replacement period poses for the drivers concerned, who have become immobilized . The accident between the victim's vehicle and a heavy goods vehicle occurred in an area known to be dangerous, the fire brigade indicated on the evening of the incident. The man, "trapped in his vehicle", was "extracted upon the arrival of the fire brigade" while he was in cardio-respiratory arrest, according to the same source.