The death of a South Carolina man driving a Ford Ranger has prompted a new recall of that pickup model to replace faulty Takata airbag inflators, his fatality marking the tenth linked to the airbags at the centre of one of the largest recalls in auto industry history, and the first to occur in a vehicle not made by Honda. This latest round of recalls adds five million vehicles for a worldwide total of 28 million affected.
New to the list of affected brands are Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen, though Transport Canada has not yet issued recalls for those models.
According to a story at Automotive News, the man's attorney alleges the driver was killed when his truck's airbag deployed in a collision with a cow, and metal shrapnel was propelled into his neck. Similar circumstances were involved in the nine other Takata-related deaths: moisture can accumulate inside the airbag inflator and cause it to rupture when the airbag deploys, creating metal debris that could be propelled at high velocity into the vehicle cabin.
This is the second time the Ranger has been recalled to have Takata airbag components replaced: In May 2015, Ford and Transport Canada began replacing passenger side airbags, but this latest incident means the manufacturer is asking owners of the same batch of trucks to come back so dealers can replace the driver-side airbags, too.
Here is the full list of vehicles affected by the Takata airbag recall.
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