Ford, Dealer Sued After Passenger Loses Eye When Faulty Takata Airbag Explodes
2007 Ford MustangImage: Ford
The scope of the Takata airbag recall is shocking. Nearly a decade on, a $1 billion fine placed on Takata, over 42 million vehicles recalled, 19 deaths, and 400 injuries, and things are still happening. And in some instances, all the blame isn’t being placed on Takata. Automotive News reports that Ford and one of its dealers in Texas are being sued. Allegedly the dealer failed to perform a recall replacement of an airbag, resulting in a woman losing her eye.
Ford’s recall for the airbags covered nearly 60,000 cars. Among them was the fifth generation Mustang. Ford issued a recall for 2005-2007 model-year Mustangs in the summer of 2014 with the warning that shrapnel could be released from the airbag in the event of a collision. Allegedly, one of those Mustangs didn’t have the recall performed.
In the suit filed by Sara Morgan in Brazoria County Texas, Morgan alleges that her boyfriend at the time had a 2007 Ford Mustang. This Mustang was taken into Yaklin Ford in Richwood, Texas in October 2018 for the recall of the vehicle’s airbags. The dealer was supposed to replace both driver and passenger airbags. Except they didn’t.
“We have evidence of what I call a systems failure. They replaced the driver bag, but not the passenger bag,” said Morgan’s attorney after speaking with local news.
Just two years later in June of 2020, Morgan and her boyfriend were involved in an accident. Shrapnel exploded from the passenger side airbag, and Morgan lost her eye.
“There was a bright flash, and just looking down and seeing blood. I just remember lying there getting worked on” she says.
Now Morgan is suing both Ford and the dealer over the failed recall: Ford over being responsible for “manufacturing vehicles that are supposed to be safe” and the dealer for pretty much half-assing the recall. The attorney for Morgan says the dealer hasn’t given an explanation for what led to them not properly performing the recall. “Other than, ‘We admit we made a mistake.’ There has been no explanation” he says.
