By Laurel O’Keefe
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
A massive recall of Takata airbags, due to lethal explosions upon inflation, expanded last week as Toyota recalled another 198,000 vehicles in the U.S.
Honda has been most effected however, and expanded their list of models in February resulting in more than 2.2 million cars recalled, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The recall that originally targeted 2008-2010 Hondas, now encapsulates autos as new as 2016.
Jewel Brangman, a former graduate student at Hofstra University, was the eighth death caused by metal shrapnel from an exploding Takata airbag in a rented 2001 Honda Civic after an accident on Sept. 7, 2014 in Los Angeles County. She was 26 years old when the malfunction took her life.
The impact from the accident, a minor four car fender bender, led to an explosion from the driver’s side airbag that caused Brangman’s fatal injuries. Brangman’s death was the only one to come of the four-car accident and despite roughly 38 million airbag recalls issued by Takata, it was “the first to be linked to a defective Takata airbag in a rental car,” according to carcomplaints.com.
Since the accident, Honda has admitted that the company was made aware of the defect in 2004 but did not recall cars until 2008. Still, the majority of the recalls came in the summer of 2015.
Shortly after her death, a lawsuit was filed by Brangman’s father, Alexander Brangman. The Chronicle attempted to reach out to Brangman’s family but was unable to find sufficient contact information.
In an interview with CBS news after the accident, Alexander Brangman recalled her final moments, “She was at this particular event earlier and she texted me a picture like she always did,” Brangman said to CBS news. “She said, ‘I love my life.’ She said, ‘I love my life.’”
The family’s attorney released a statement detailing the lawsuit.
“On April 21, 2015, Panish Shea & Boyle LLP filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Takata, Honda, and other defendants in connection with the death of 26-year-old Jewel Brangman who died following an otherwise survivable motor vehicle accident when the driver’s side air bag in her rental car defectively deployed causing a severe laceration to her neck and brain injury,” the statement said.
Despite both Honda and Takata issuing condolences to Brangman’s family, the rental company Brangman used, Sunset Car Rental in Otay Mesa, California, never released a statement regarding her death.
In the coverage of her case, The New York Times reported that Honda said, “Although the car had been under recall since 2009, its owners never got it fixed.”
The New York Times also reported that, “Companies are not required to repair used or rental cars that are under recall before they sell or rent them. They are also not required to disclose to customers that the vehicle has been recalled.”
Brangman received an undergraduate degree in communications with a minor in economics from SUNY Cortland in upstate New York, according to her blog. She was in the process of pursuing a M.A. at Hofstra’s School of Communication. She served as the managing editor of the Long Island Report, a student-run multimedia news outlet at Hofstra, and dedicated advocacy efforts to combatting cyberbullying, according to her WordPress site.
“In the future, I would like to work for nonprofits in providing a voice for those who are rendered voiceless in our society,” Brangman said in a blog post. “This project has taught me how many lives can be changed for the good when people join together to make their voices heard. I would like to utilize my writing skills in advancing arguments in social justice matters.”
Takata airbags have been tied to nine deaths and additional severe injuries. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has listed “approximately 28 million vehicles from 14 auto manufacturers involved in the recall.”
With a 48.2 percent repair completion rate as of Jan. 5, 2016, Honda acknowledges that the recall mishap could take years to mend.
