By Katheryn Hayes Tucker, From Daily Report

The plaintiff in an early Georgia suit over defective Takata Corp. air bags had already received her recall notice from Honda, but when she went to the service department, she was told replacement parts wouldn’t arrive for two weeks to three months. Her lawsuit alleges she was told it would be safe to drive her Civic, but a week later, her air bag exploded during a minor collision.

“They should have warned her, ‘Do not drive this vehicle. You can be dead. You can lose an eye. You can be scarred,'” said the plaintiff’s lawyer, Henry Didier Jr. of the Didier Law Firm in Orlando, Florida.

Didier said he has filed the first Takata air bag suit in the country and that he believes his case for Christian Sprouse in Muscogee County State Court is the first in Georgia.

Sprouse, 29, was hit in the eye, face and neck with flying metal when the air bags deployed in her 2004 Civic in April. It took four months for the wound in her neck to heal enough for more surgery to attempt to improve the scarring, which she underwent Tuesday. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed,” he said. “Right now it looks horrible.”

Didier said he believes his client’s life was saved because an inch-long piece of shrapnel shaped like an arrowhead hit her in the chin before landing in her neck. “Had it not been slowed down by the bone in her chin, it would have gone and ripped through her artery,” Didier said Friday.

Sprouse has sued Takata, the air bag manufacturer, Honda and the dealership, Carl Gregory Honda. The allegations against all three defendants include failure to warn of the danger of driving cars with Takata air bags while waiting for parts to supply the recall work.

Didier’s first air bag case is on behalf of the family of Hien Tran, an Orlando woman who died after her air bag exploded upon deployment in a September 2014 collision. After inspecting the scene of the minor accident, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case as a possible homicide by stabbing, Didier said. An exhibit included with the Georgia lawsuit contains a New York Times article about the Florida case titled, “It Looked Like a Stabbing, but Takata Airbag Was the Killer.”

Tran’s death came before Honda and Takata recalled her car. Her recall notice arrived in her mailbox a week later, Didier said.

The product defect allegation in Georgia is similar to the one in the Florida case—and behind 60 million recalls for all carmakers, including 30 million for Honda, Didier said. When the air bag deployed in Sprouse’s car, the “inflator ruptured, causing metal fragments to pass through the air bag cushion material,” the suit says.

Honda’s defense counsel for the Columbus case is the Bowman and Brooke firm in Columbia, South Carolina. The attorney of record there referred a call to the managing partner, who could not be reached.

Takata’s local counsel for the Georgia case is Christopher York of McGahren, Gaskill & York in Norcross. York referred an inquiry to Takata, whose spokesman declined comment. The dealer’s general manager couldn’t be reached.

A statement on the Honda website says: “With regard to the replacement of Takata air bag inflators in older model Honda and Acura vehicles affected by the recall, we want to reassure our customers that we have an effective customer service system in place to address each owner’s needs and concerns. If your vehicle is affected by this recall, we encourage you to take immediate action to have it repaired. There is no cost for the repair. Should there be any wait for a replacement air bag inflator, our dealers are prepared to provide alternative transportation in the form of a loaner or rental vehicle, free of charge, until your own vehicle is repaired. We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience, and want you to know we are doing everything possible to accelerate production of the replacement of air bag inflators so that our customers’ vehicles can be repaired as soon as possible.”

The Georgia case is Sprouse v. American Honda Motor Co., No. SC15CV324.

IMAGE: Hank Didier

For more on this story go to: http://www.dailyreportonline.com/id=1202734340303/Plaintiff-in-Georgia-Air-Bag-Case-Was-Waiting-for-Recall-Parts-to-Arrive#ixzz3ibwVqT5k