Takata air bag recalls in U.S. to cover 42 mil cars when done

Shut Takata down! They are criminals.

"Eleven people have been killed by Takata inflators in the U.S. and as many as 16 worldwide. The government says about 180 people have been hurt in the U.S. alone." Absolutely meaningless if no time frame is given. I think that this has occurred over a decade or since 2000.

And just to put it in perspective, just using the recall figures alone, we are looking at 42 million cars. Let's do the math..... that is a 0.000004285 probability (0.00043%) of being injured OVER a decade. And it is 0.0000002619 probability (0.000026%) of death over a decade or more. Oh wait ALLEGED injury and ALLEGED death. Because nothing has been proven at all. Not one case has been adjudicated or settled. And this is not like Donald Trump talking about grabbing women, this is a company that, let's be honest, puts EXPLOSIVES in front of your face to save you from death and injury. Everybody knows that, and they have BEGGED auto manufacturers to put as many of these devices into cars as possible. Driver bags, passenger bags, side bags... why? Because they work! They have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

"Shut Takata down! They are criminals." ALLEGED criminals. But what we know FOR A FACT is that they are saints for saving hundreds of thousands of lives and many many more cases of injury. Frankly, their alleged crimes amount to a hill of beans and their demonstrated life-saving capacity is priceless.

How many lives have YOU saved in the past 16 years?

Nobody has to agree with me, but I think we are witnessing a shakedown. Here is a company that may or may not have an actual problem with these inflators, but when the government forces a recall, dealerships across America have to hire extra mechanics and delivery people and hire more staff. It amounts to billions of dollars of makework for AMERICAN WORKERS! And where is the harm really? The Japanese are rich. They can pay for it. It is easy to shakedown companies. Just create a lot of hysteria, point to a few deaths (which occur daily on highways for all kinds of reasons), and let the lawyers loose! Easy as pie. And if Takata goes bankrupt, let Romney's BAIN Capital take it over, sell off the pieces, and make a few bucks.

You couldn't be more right 5SpeedRacer5.

The NHTSA wants higher safety standards in comparision to aviation industry. Ok so let's open the Black Box of U.S. Corporations like GMO Industry ,Pharmaceutical Labs, Banks and Insurance Companies, Military-Industrial Complex, Health Insurers, Mainstream Media, etc, etc.

5Speedracer5: "ALLEGED criminals. But what we know FOR A FACT is that they are saints for saving hundreds of thousands of lives and many many more cases of injury. "

Actually, you don't know that for a fact at all. Where's your proof. "Hundreds of thousands of lives"? Really? Now, what we ACTUALLY know FOR A FACT is that Takata illegally withheld information after it was demanded, by law, and that once it was being proven that their airbags were killing people they also started falsifying numbers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/24/business/takata-faked-test-data-a-year-after-airbag-recalls-report-says.html?_r=0

And in any case, even if the company has saved "hundreds of thousands" as you claim, it has still killed more than a dozen through corner cutting, and lying about it, then not releasing the data that could have prevented further deaths. That alone should put the execs in prison. It was a good company under the father, but the son has run it into the ground. So, sorry, the number of lives saved could be in the billions, if you just want to expand your outrages claims a little, it still does not matter in light of the fact that their lies and cheating took even one life. If a Takata airbag had FAILED to save a life, your argument would be valid, but it has TAKEN lives -- in some cases a mere fender bender caused the bags to send shrapnel into the faces and necks of victims, killing them when had they not been a Takada airbag the person would still be alive. So, no, it does not matter how many, if any, lives have been saved by said airbags.

Allright Smith. Let's make this short and sweet.

It is a common tactic nowadays with class action suits and the US legal environment to find disgruntled employees who will say any old thing. Over and over, little has come of all these claims, whether they are reported in the NYT or not. I don't think they amount to much. And you know what? Nobody else does either. Where are Cosby's accusers today? Where are Trump's accusers today? Where are all those people who crashed their Toyotas and blamed it on a problem that even Nasa could not find? See? It is a big deal in the NYT for about one news cycle, and POOF, it is gone.

You can libel and slander Takata as criminals, but those are allegations, not fact. A criminal is someone convicted in a court of law. Who is that, Smith? Who is a criminal?

Sure. I think airbags have saved hundreds of thousands. Here is my reasoning. Takata had huge market share in the airbag industry. I think it is north of 60%, and it used to be even higher. So, from the 80s, I suppose, when an airbag inflated, it was probably a Takata bag, and it either saved a life or prevented an injury. I can't prove a negative. Nobody can. How injured would those people be otherwise? How many would be dead? Well. Gee. Let's put it in terms that you might appreciate. "Why isn't even one life worth it to you, Smith? Or five, or ten?" What kind of ghoul would you have to be to say that we would be better off without air bags? To this day, you won't find anyone who thinks that air bags in general are a bad idea at all.

But hundreds of thousands of lives over 35 years? Sure. US traffic fatalities are more or less 30k per year. That means, roughly, lets say a million over 35 years. THat is the US alone. And figure that an airbag saved just... let's go one for one. Or even one half for one. That is, conservatively, 500,000 deaths prevented in the US alone. Injury accidents? Well, doubling the fatality number is very conservative as a proxy for injuries. Now extrapolate that worldwide. I said hundreds of thousands to be conservative. Could be a million easy. Look. Don't you know someone who is still alive because of airbags? I sure do. Immediate family members. Famous people.

People who have access to all the facts have decided to rely on Takata airbags.

In fact, almost all of the recalled Takata airbags are being replaced....with Takata airbags. The meaning is obvious. People need airbags. They rely on them. They choose them. Takata is viewed by all concerned to be reliable. Regulators want them. Insurers want them. Auto manufacturers want them. And they know a lot more about the facts than you do. They are professionals. They have all the best and most current information. Do you really think that you are an authority and all those people are just hapless bunglers who don't read the New York Times? Or do they just not care about people as much as you do?

See? I don' t really have to make my point. The world is doing it for me. In direct contradiction of your last statement of your post, THE ONLY THING that matters to society is how many people have been saved by airbags. Anyone allegedly injured by them has made no impact on the use of airbags, or even of Takata airbags. When the recall is done, your car will have a Takata airbag, Smith.

If you find that the whole world, or even all regulating bodies, insurance companies, manufacturers, and the legal system rule one way on an issue, and you have stuck to claiming ALLEGED acts in support of your claims, you might want to wonder who is more likely to be right. And if you decide that you ARE right, do you think you should examine that decision rather than slandering and libeling people?