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Family files suit after fatal accident

Woman killed by airbag explosion

HOUGHTON — The family of a woman killed by an exploding airbag module in a 2021 crash filed a civil suit for negligence last week in Houghton County Circuit Court.

The suit by the family of Marlene Beaudoin names the module’s manufacturer, ARC Automotive; General Motors and Toyoda Gosei North America Corp. It seeks damages of more than $25,000. 

On Aug. 15, 2021, Beaudoin was driving her Chevrolet Traverse to get ice cream with four of her children. The mother of 10 was hit by a car in the intersection of Church Street and U.S. 41. 

“The impact of the collision was not major,” her attorneys said in the complaint. “All of the occupants of the Traverse should have survived without significant injury. All occupants of both vehicles, except Marlene, survived.”

The airbag module exploded, sending shrapnel from the air bag module, steering wheel and steering column at high speed. She suffered chest, neck and head wounds from the explosion. 

Police reports showed a metal part of the airbag inflator had been found in Beaudoin’s neck during the autopsy.

Beaudoin was airlifted to U.P. Health System – Portage hospital in Marquette, where she died from her injuries the next day. 

After third-party investigators from General Motors inspected the vehicle, GM launched a recall in October 2021, acknowledging the manufacturing defect.

However, the complaint alleges, ARC had been aware of the risk prior to the module’s manufacture in 2017. Similar incidents in the field and in testing had been reported as far back as 2009, the complaint states. A letter from NHTSA to ARC in October 2016 recounting the history of the incidents, said they “raise serious questions regarding the quality and integrity of ARC’s air bag inflators.”

A BMW report to NHTSA in 2017 reported the inflator was susceptible to rupture due to impaired gas flow causing excessive internal pressure.

Beaudoin’s airbag module was manufactured in 2017, the year before ARC introduced engineering and design changes to address the defects.

The part was stocked at a GM service parts provider, which sold it to a car repair shop in 2019 as a replacement part of the Traverse. After the repair, the owner sold it to a dealer in Negaunee, which sold the car to Beaudoin in April 2019. 

“In spite of knowledge of the cause, the defects, and the need for design and manufacturing changes, and in spite of the proven risk of injury and death, ARC did not, and to date has not recalled any ARC toroidal airbag inflators,” the complaint states. 

An email was sent to ARC seeking comment Friday. 

The six-count complaint cites negligence, gross negligence, fraudulent concealment, failure to inform of dangerous condition, negligent production, implied warranty of fitness. 

The family is seeking damages in a number of categories, including medical expenses, funeral expenses, loss of financial support, and compensation for mental anguish and anxiety. 

ARC and GM, along with Ford and Volkswagen, also face a federal class action suit accusing them of knowingly selling vehicles with faulty air bag modules.

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