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Lawsuit reveals gruesome details of Takata airbag victim's death

The accident was minor. The aftermath was horrific. Carlos Solis was waiting to turn left into a Houston-area apartment complex on January 28 when oncoming traffic struck the front-left corner of his 2002 Honda Accord, pictured above. He was stopped, according to a police report of the accident. The other car traveled at under 30 miles per hour. He should have walked away from the fender-bender. Instead, the 35-year-old married man was killed when a defective airbag exploded and sent a large piece of metal shrapnel into his neck, his estate's lawyers allege in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Harris County, Texas. He bled to death while his younger brother and an 11-year-old cousin tried to save him. Solis is one of at least six motorists killed by defective airbags made by Takata, a global automotive supplier. He may also be a posthumous poster child for federal legislation introduced earlier this week that would ensure car owners receive more timely information about safety recalls. Currently, federal law does not require car dealers to tell prospective buyers about open recalls on used cars or whether defects have been repaired. Legislation introduced by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wouldn't require that directly of dealerships, but it would mandate that car owners be notified of recalls when they apply for registration and at the time of registration renewal. "Important recall notices can get bogged down with legalese, and busy consumers can miss a life-saving update," Blumenthal said. "This legislation provides a common-sense avenue to ensure every driver is reminded and encouraged to make the necessary repairs." Such a law may have prevented Solis' death. Although his '02 Accord had been recalled in late 2011, his wife and lawyers say he had no knowledge of the recall when he bought the car used from All Star Auto Sales in 2014, nor did he know of the dangerous flaw when he set out to visit his parents on Jan. 18. Only one month earlier, Congress held hearings on Takata and Honda's long-standing inaction related to the defective airbags. Documents showed both companies were aware of problems with the airbags as early as 2004, and a report in The New York Times detailed secret airbag tests, the results of which alarmed Takata engineers. Yet the company withheld the information from federal safety administrators.

Is today's Honda Accord cheaper than it was back in 1989?

Whether you're shopping at the grocery story or on a car lot, everything seems to be getting more expensive these days. However, when all the factors are considered, that might be more an issue of perception than of fact. The American Public Media radio show Marketplace recently tackled the question whether modern vehicles were actually more expensive once you factored in important variables like inflation and cost of ownership. The result was pretty surprising.
For its example, Marketplace chose the Honda Accord, because in August, it was one of the bestselling vehicles in the US, with 51,075 of them sold. Winding back the clock 25 years to 1989, Honda's cheapest Accord cost $11,770, and that money bought you a stripped-out car with 98 horsepower, a manual gearbox, no air conditioning and hand-crank windows.
Fast-forward to present day, and a basic Accord starts at around $22,000 and gives buyers significantly more features, including a 185-hp engine, dual-zone climate control, Bluetooth, cruise control, more space, refinement and much better safety. By Marketplace's math, when just figuring for inflation, that modern Honda would cost about $11,500 a quarter century ago, despite all of that extra equipment. But that's just one factor. Scroll down to listen to the full report for an explanation of how cost of ownership figures into the mix, and whether it throws all of the calculations off.

See the evolution of McLaren F1 cars in one GIF

If you dig racecars and history, you'll enjoy the .gif file on display below. It comes to us from the folks at automotive parts website PartCatalog.com, and it shows how McLaren's Formula 1 cars have changed from the very first one to this season's black and orange Honda-powered machine. And they have certainly changed. That very first car had scarcely an aerodynamic aid to the radically winged racer of today.It's also interesting to see how driver positioning has changed over the years. Through the '70s and '80s, the driver was pushed farther and farther to the front. Then in the '90s and '00s, the driver started to be pushed back to the middle, and longer noses became common. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This .gif file isn't just interesting for seeing how the cars have changed, though. It also features some of the most famous F1 cars of all time. Fans of vintage F1 racing and of the film Rush may recognize the McLaren M23 James Hunt piloted to a championship victory over rival Nicki Lauda in 1976. There's also the 1985 McLaren MP4/2B that was the last McLaren Nicki Lauda would drive, and the car that would take Alain Prost to a championship. Prost's rival Ayrton Senna also has a car in this .gif, and that's the 1988 Honda-powered car he drove to his first ever championship. There are many other cars in this .gif we don't have time to cover though, but you can learn more about them and the cars we mentioned by checking out McLaren's great history page. Each car there has a brief profile covering the stats, and lengthier articles with more background. It's a great way to spend a morning. Related Video: