Young mom killed when counterfeit airbag explodes ‘like a grenade,’ Florida lawsuit says
A 22-year-old woman was killed by an exploding airbag last year after she was sold a car that had counterfeit parts installed, according to a new lawsuit.
Now, the family of Destiny Marie Byassee is suing a mechanic based in Broward County, Florida, and multiple car companies, including Enterprise Rent-A-Car, over her death.
On June 11, Byassee was involved in a frontal collision while driving her 2020 Chevy Malibu in Punta Gorda, according to attorney Andrew Felix, of Morgan & Morgan, who is representing her family.
Upon impact, the airbag exploded “like a grenade,” the lawsuit says.
The blast “shot metal and plastic shrapnel throughout” the car and “struck (Byassee) in the face, head and neck, ultimately killing her,” according to a complaint filed in the 17th Judicial Circuit Court for Broward County on May 16.
She “was a mother of two young children and had her entire life ahead of her,” attorney John Morgan, who is also representing the family, said in a news release.
Her youngest child turned 4 the day the lawsuit was filed, Felix told McClatchy News. Her other child is 6.
Cathy King, Byassee’s grandmother, filed the lawsuit on behalf of her grandchildren; Byassee’s spouse, Ernesto Donovan Barrientes; and Byassee’s mother, Lorretta Simmons.
What happened before the explosion?
According to the lawsuit, Byassee’s car was initially a rental car owned by Enterprise Rent-A-Car. On Sept. 24, 2022, the vehicle was totaled in a crash, the complaint says.
Due to the heavy damage, it “should have been classified as a total loss,” the complaint says.
However, Enterprise worked with Manheim, a Delaware company that sells used vehicles, to auction off the car, which needed to be repaired, according to the complaint.
Haim Levy, a mechanic who owns Jumbo Automotive Inc. in Hollywood, Florida, was hired to fix the vehicle and the driver-side airbag after it was deployed in the 2022 crash, the complaint says.
Levy and his shop are accused of buying “counterfeit and non-compliant airbag components” from Chinese auto company Jilin and illegally installing it in the car.
In addition to the airbag, the vehicle’s seat belt pretensioner, the device that locks the seat belt and secures a passenger, also needed to be repaired, according to the complaint.
Instead of fixing it, the complaint says “Jumbo and Levy cut the wires to the seat belt pretensioner so that the front driver’s seatbelt would release from its deployed position, appear normal, and appear to function as designed and intended.”
Byassee ultimately bought the car from DriveTime and “had no idea that the vehicle had been improperly and illegally repaired,” according to the complaint, which says DriveTime purchased the car from Manheim.
Levy and the companies are named as defendants in the lawsuit, which accuses them of negligence.
A person who answered the phone at Jumbo Automotive on May 16 told McClatchy News that Levy is out of the country, that he couldn’t be reached and hung up.
A Manheim spokesperson told McClatchy News on May 16 that “While this was a tragic event, Manheim is unable to comment on the lawsuit at this time.”
Enterprise, Jilin and DriveTime didn’t respond to McClatchy News’ requests for comment on May 16.
Byassee “believed she was buying a safe and reliable vehicle, but our lawsuit alleges that several automotive companies worked to skirt the system by repairing what should’ve been a totaled vehicle, all just to make money,” Morgan said in the release.
“Because of that, Ms. Byassee lost her life, and her children will grow up without their mother.”
The lawsuit contends that this isn’t an isolated issue and that counterfeit airbags from China are being installed in cars that are driven by customers in the U.S., according to the release.
“Consumers need to be aware of these tactics used to save money, increase profits, and keep vehicles on the road when they pose a severe danger,” Felix said.
On March 6, a retired auto mechanic in Memphis, Tennessee, pleaded guilty to trafficking counterfeit airbags from China, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee said in a news release.
He sold the airbags over eBay to auto repair shops and consumers — and is accused of “causing a dangerous good or forbidden explosive to be placed onto a commercial aircraft” since at least one airbag was shipped by plane, prosecutors said.
Airbag explosion risks
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a recall for millions of vehicles with airbags made by Takata, a Japanese automotive company, for explosion risks.
Sixty-seven million Takata airbags are under recall because “exposure to high heat and humidity can cause these air bags to explode when deployed,” the administration says.
“Such explosions have caused injuries and deaths.”
More information on the recall can be found on the NHTSA’s website.
The lawsuit over Byassee’s death seeks to recover an unspecified amount in damages and demands a jury trial.
This story was originally published May 17, 2024 at 8:56 AM with the headline "Young mom killed when counterfeit airbag explodes ‘like a grenade,’ Florida lawsuit says."
.jpg)