Another death reported in crash involving Takata air bags

Ford is recalling almost 391,000 Ranger pickups because the driver’s air bag inflators can explode with too much force and cause injuries.

Takata included the reference to the India death in a filing to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration dated January 25. Knight was pronounced dead at the scene and it was determined the Takata airbag inflator had exploded, sending shards of metal into Mr. Knight.

That could be the 11th death worldwide attributed to defective Takata inflators.

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In addition, Takata’s troubles only grew larger after US auto safety regulators said Tuesday that the company’s ongoing recalls – mostly from older models – would now have to include some 2014 models. Each automaker is scrambling to figure out what models have the recalled Takata inflators, and they’re expected to file papers with further details in the coming days. Joel Knight, 52, died after metal shrapnel struck him in the neck when his 2006 Ranger hit a cow in the road and dashed against a fence.

Ford recalled Ranger trucks in 2014 and 2015 to replace Takata airbags, but one of those recalls was only a regional recall for trucks in Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

A lawyer representing Knight’s family says the crash was moderate and Knight would not have died if the inflator didn’t rupture.

About 4 million other vehicles will be recalled due to additional testing on Takata air bags, including vehicles from Honda, VW and other automakers, the safety agency said.

Friday’s move was prompted in part by the death of the driver of a Ford Motor Co pickup truck last month, as well as new tests conducted on suspected faulty air bags.

Honda has previously recalled about 6.28 million vehicles in the United States for air bag inflators, a Honda spokesman said.