Faulty Takata Air Bag Blamed For January Death In South Carolina

A driver in South Carolina is the latest person to be killed by an exploding Takata air bag inflator.

Honda said Wednesday that a faulty driver's air bag blew apart in a crash involving a 2002 Honda Accord in Lancaster County, South Carolina. The company wouldn't give details of the Jan. 9 crash near Charlotte, North Carolina, nor would it identify the person who was killed.

Honda officials and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration inspected the car and the air bag parts on Wednesday and determined that the inflator had ruptured, the company said. The death is the 19th in the U.S. since 2009 and the 28th worldwide caused by the faulty inflators.

Takata used volatile ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion to inflate air bags in a crash. But the chemical can become more volatile over time when exposed to moisture in the air. The explosion can blow apart a metal canister and hurl shrapnel into the passenger compartment.

The problem caused the largest series of auto recalls in U.S. history, with at least 63 million inflators recalled. The U.S. government says that as of last year, more than 11.1 million had not been fixed. About 100 million inflators have been recalled worldwide.