Takata Shuns Wider Recall Of Shrapnel Airbags

A Takata Corp executive has told a Senate hearing there is no need for a nationwide recall of its potentially deadly airbags.

The driver-side devices - which can inflate with too much force, shooting out metal shards - have been linked to at least five deaths and dozens of injuries.

The Japanese company, which makes one in five airbags globally, is accused of knowing for years about the problem.

Senior vice president Hiroshi Shimizu told the commerce committee on Thursday: "We are deeply sorry about each of the reported instances in which a Takata (Frankfurt: 7TK.F - news) airbag has not performed as designed and the driver or passenger had suffered personal injuries or deaths."

But he said the firm's current regional recalls were adequate because the "anomalies" only occurred in areas of high humidity.

However, before he testified the sister of someone who died in a 2003 accident in Arizona - a state not covered by the piecemeal recall - told a news conference that death was also linked to a Takata airbag.

It would be the sixth fatality.

Senator Ed Markey said: "Every single one of these Takata airbags could be a ticking timebomb."

The committee saw a photo of the horrific injuries suffered by one motorist when an airbag embedded shrapnel in her face in her Honda Civic during a 2013 accident in Florida.

Stephanie Erdman, who has undergone multiple operations, told the panel she had lost the vision in her right eye.

The US Air Force lieutenant said: "My passenger had mild scrapes and bruises. I should not have been injured the way I was."

In another Florida case, detectives initially suspected that motorist Hien Tran had been stabbed in the neck until the investigation into her death turned to the vehicle safety device.

More than eight million cars have so far been recalled in Florida, Hawaii and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.

But US safety regulators have urged the firm and five carmakers - Ford, Mazda (BSE: MAZDALTD.BO - news) , Honda, Chrysler (Xetra: 710000 - news) and BMW (Swiss: BMW.SW - news) - to recall airbags nationwide after other incidents in California and North Carolina.

Since 2008, around 16 million cars with Takata airbags have been recalled worldwide, with more than 10 million of those in the US.