Authorities first thought that Hien Thi Tran had been stabbed by an assailant. Part of the airbag canister that exploded and injured her is pictured on the right.
When police got to the scene of a minor car accident in Alhambra, California in September 2013, they thought the driver, Hai Ming Xu, had been shot in the face. A similar conclusion was reached by Orlando police responding to an accident a year later — they believed that the driver, Hien Thi Tran, had been the victim of a stabbing that might have caused the accident. But what allegedly killed both drivers was the device put in their cars to protect them – an airbag manufactured by Takata. Lawsuits and police reports say these airbags have exploded with such force that they sent shrapnel flying into the car’s drivers, fatally wounding Xu and Tran. Xu’s accident was in the parking lot