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A Utah woman whose neck and vocal cords were severely damaged by metal shrapnel when an "overly volatile" airbag deployed during an accident in her Honda Civic is now suing.
Randi Johnston, 25, filed the suit Tuesday in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court against several corporations, including Honda, airbag manufacturer Takata, and local car dealership Stockton 12 Honda.
Johnston, of Centerville, was driving her 2003 Honda Civic to work on Sept. 28 when she was in an accident on Interstate 15, according to a ns release from the South Carolina law firm Motley Rice LLC, which is representing her.
When Johnston's airbag deployed, metal shrapnel pierced her face and lodged in her neck, severing her trachea and damaging her vocal cords. An Army medic was at the scene of the accident, and helped treat her until she could receive additional medical treatment.
"I could have died on the side of the road that morning, surrounded by strangers and choking on my own blood," Johnston said in the news release. "No one should have to experience that. If it weren't for the injuries to my throat, I would have walked away from that accident. Instead, I left in an ambulance and spent several days in the ICU, half-conscious and terrified."
Johnston currently cannot speak due to her injuries, she said, and her longterm prognosis is unknown.
The woman's car was part of two recent vehicle recalls, according to her attorneys: The driver-side airbag was recalled on May 2015 and the passenger-side airbag was recalled just days before Johnston's accident. She never received notice of either recall, her lawyers claim.
In the lawsuit, Johnston accused the companies of general negligence, gross negligence, reckless conduct and breach of warranty. She is seeking an unspecified amount of monetary damages, along with punitive damages to be weighed against the defendants.
Johnston's attorney, Kevin Dean, accused Takata and Honda of not working hard enough to track down the recalled vehicles and fix them.
"I believe Takata's stance that high humidity areas should be replaced first is based on false facts," Dean said in the news release. "Used cars travel and are sold all around the country and could have been in high-humidity areas for years, as in Randi's case ... Unfortunately, these recalled cars continue to be purchased every day and the new owners are unknowingly driving ticking time bombs."
Johnston purchased her vehicle from a private seller in Utah six months before the accident. Her attorneys allege that the previous owner took the car to Stockton 12 for a routine inspection just before selling it to Johnston, but accused the dealership of not performing "internal notice directives for the airbag inflater" and not replacing the airbag as part of the inspection.
Motley Rice LLC has filed a number of similar cases nationwide, including airbag injury cases in Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina. Local law firm Siegfried and Jensen is also representing Johnston in the case. No court dates had been set as of Wednesday.
Twitter: @jm_miller