(Updates with Honda statement from the fifth paragraph.)
The statement comes just days after the mother of Kylan Langlinais filed a lawsuit claiming that when her daughter’s Honda Civic hit a utility pole in April the air bag deployed with too much force and sprayed shrapnel that ultimately led to her death.
“After examination of the vehicle and other evidence, NHTSA has concluded that a ruptured Takata air-bag inflator is likely to have been involved,” Mark Rosekind, the agency’s administrator, said in an e-mailed statement Friday without commenting on the lawsuit.
