LAS VEGAS (AP) – A Nevada crash that nearly killed a young woman has exposed a hole in the government’s efforts to get dangerous Takata air bag inflators off the road: There’s nothing that prevents the devices from being taken from wrecked cars and reused.
Karina Dorado’s trachea was punctured by shrapnel from an inflator after a relatively minor crash in Las Vegas on March 3. She was rushed to a trauma center, where surgeons removed pieces that damaged her vocal cords. She is still being treated for neck injuries.
Dorado, 18, is among nearly 200 people injured or killed by the inflators, which can explode when the chemical propellant inside degrades. What’s different about her case is how the inflator wound up in her family’s 2002 Honda Accord in the first place.
Dorado’s father, Jose, bought the car for her in March of last year so she could get to and from her job at a customer service call center, attorneys for the family said Wednesday. The family did not know the car’s history, including that it had been wrecked in Phoenix and declared a total loss by an insurance company in 2015, the attorneys said.
According to AutoCheck, a service that tracks vehicle histories, the car was given a salvage title, repaired and resold in Las Vegas last spring.