Malaysian woman and unborn child died due to faulty air bag, says Honda

Japanese automaker Honda says a Malaysian woman who died in a car accident due to a defective air bag manufactured by Takata Corp. was pregnant and perished with her unborn baby.

Jordhatt Johan, an official with Honda Malaysia, says Friday the air bag in the woman's 2003 Honda City car deployed abnormally and its inflator broke when the vehicle crashed into another car in the July 27 incident.

He says the cause of death was the "rupture of the (air bag) inflator."

Global recalls related to air bags manufactured by Takata number more than 12 million vehicles and the Malaysian death is the fifth worldwide.

Jordhatt said Honda only recently discovered the inflator was defective because Takata failed to control the humidity during production.