Honda units to pay $85 million in U.S. states’ probe over Takata air bags

Units of Honda Motor have agreed to pay $85 million to settle an investigation by the majority of U.S. states into its use of defective Takata airbag inflators in its automobiles, according to a consent order made public on Tuesday.

The state investigations are associated with the ongoing recalls of tens of millions of vehicles geared up with potentially defective Takata inflators that were sold by Honda and other well-known automakers during the past 20 years.

Until now, over 40 million U.S. vehicles geared up with 60 million defective Takata airbags have been recalled as the inflators can explode when deployed, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). At least 25 deaths across the world and nearly 300 injuries have been associated with the faulty Takata inflators.

Takata recalls cover about 100 million inflators globally among 19 major automakers, including Honda.

In January, Honda said it would recall 2.7 million older U.S. vehicles in North America for potentially faulty Takata inflators. That recall covers Honda and Acura automobiles from 1996 through 2003 model years.

Honda said it know about one field rupture of an inflator in the new recall campaign – a 2012 crash in Texas that caused an injury – and two in junkyards in Japan.

In the settlement declared Tuesday, American Honda Motor and Honda of America agreed to upgrade their product safety procedures associated with frontal airbags, including to decrease the risk that their inflators could rupture.

The Honda affiliates agreed to the consent order without confessing wrongdoing and to prevent the cost of further litigation, the automaker said. Court approval is needed.

Honda verified the report that it had reached civil settlements with 46 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and three U.S. territories over the concern.

Since 2008, Honda has recalled almost 13 million U.S. vehicles equipped with Takata inflators and has replaced over 16 million inflators.

A multistate group of attorneys general had been probing Honda’s use of Takata airbags since December 2015.