SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. — The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a consumer alert cautioning used car owners and buyers to check out airbags when purchasing a vehicle.
In a news release, NHTSA says substandard replacement airbags have killed at least three people and seriously injured two others in the past year.
ABC Action News investigative reporter Adam Walser has learned one victim was a young Florida mother whose family has filed a lawsuit alleging a counterfeit airbag imported from China exploded in her car and killed her.
“To her it was safe, and that’s why she bought it”
Those who knew Destiny Byassee say her personality matched her million-dollar smile.
“Funny, smart, hardworking, caring” is how Jenna Kiley describes her best friend.
Kiley and Destiny worked together at a McDonalds in Punta Gorda.
Kiley says Destiny doted over her young son and daughter.
“She loved her kids. She would do anything for them. She worked overtime, all the time, trying to support them. She had her own apartment,” Kiley said.
Last March, when Destiny was 22, she decided to buy a used Chevy Malibu from DriveTime in nearby Ft. Myers. to replace her aging car.
DriveTime is a buy-here-pay-here dealership that specializes in financing customers with poor credit at 149 locations nationwide.
Its website advertises, “All vehicles go through four different multi-point inspections.”
“The only thing my client was told was this vehicle was properly inspected by experts. And to her, it was safe. And that’s why she bought it,” said attorney Andrew Parker Felix of Morgan and Morgan, who represents Destiny’s family.
They hired him after Destiny was involved in a crash on June 11, 2023.
Destiny was driving on East Laurel Road in Sarasota County when her Chevy struck a car stopped at a traffic signal.
Her vehicle ran off the road, hit a mailbox, and then struck a light pole.
“It explodes like a grenade”
Felix says her car's airbag was deployed in the low-speed crash.
“It explodes like a grenade. And it literally shoots shrapnel at your face at 300 to 400 miles an hour,” Felix said.
Destiny was rushed to Sarasota Memorial Hospital.
“I was at home, and I found out. And I heard she was getting surgery. And I was like, she’s gonna be ok, you know. It's just a crash. She's gonna be fine,” Kiley said.
Destiny died the next day.
A lawsuit alleges her driver’s side airbag system included “counterfeit and non-compliant components” and that “several fragments from the blast” struck her “in the face, head and neck... ultimately killing her."
Photos of her car’s interior after the crash show her airbag covered in blood.
The lawsuit also alleges her front driver-side seatbelt pretensioner was inoperable and did not deploy as originally designed.
Felix says the wires to the seatbelt pretensioner were cut, and the front airbag in Destiny was a Chinese replacement that is not approved for use in the United States.
Felix says what happened to Destiny’s car was like the Takata airbag explosions.
“We don’t know just yet if it will be as large as the Takata problem, but that’s what we intend to find out,” Felix said.
Takata airbags are blamed for 27 deaths and 400 injuries, leading to the largest automobile recall in US history, involving 40 million vehicles from 10 manufacturers.
NHTSA says substandard air bag inflators currently finding their way into the market have caused at least three deaths and two injuries last year.
Records show Destiny’s car had airbag deployment in 2022
“Unfortunately, I believe we’re going to keep seeing these,” Felix said.
Destiny’s Chevy Malibu was originally an Enterprise rental car.
Records show its airbag deployed after a crash in the Florida Keys in September 2022.
Enterprise sold the car using Manheim Auctions, the nation’s largest auto auction company.
The lawsuit alleges Jumbo Automotive, an auto repair company in Hollywood, FL, cut the wires to the seatbelt pre-tensioner and installed a “counterfeit and non-compliant" airbag.
That airbag allegedly came from a company in China called “Jilin Province Detiannuo Safety Technology Co. Ltd”.
The lawsuit does not indicate if repairs were made before or after the car was bought by DriveTime.
“The defendants in this particular case see a scenario where ‘hey, we can just keep flipping this car down the line. Get it repaired, sell it to the next consumer,’” Felix said.
Enterprise provided the following statement to the I-Team:
“Enterprise was not involved with the repair of the vehicle. The vehicle was sold “as is” through wholesale channels and relevant state titling requirements were followed. Once a vehicle is sold, we have no line-of-sight into their subsequent repair processes. The vehicle would have been repaired by a third-party after it was sold.”
Manheim Auctions sent us the following statement:
Manheim would like to express our deepest condolences to the Byassee family for their loss.
We are unable to comment on specific claims in the lawsuit. However, it’s important to note that Manheim’s primary role is to facilitate the sale of wholesale vehicles between registered buyers and sellers. Manheim adheres to the National Auto Auction Association (NAAA) policy that states that sellers are required to disclose any matters that relate to the safety or integrity of the vehicle at sale.
DriveTime’s attorney sent this statement:
“I can confirm as a spokesperson for DriveTime that DriveTime purchased the vehicle at auction and there was no disclosure of any accident or the alleged airbag repair made by the seller at the auction. Had such a disclosure been made, the vehicle in question would not have been purchased by DriveTime. As a matter of corporate policy DriveTime does not purchase vehicles at auctions when there is a disclosure or other indication of prior airbag deployment. Further, Drivetime does not know and has no relationship with either Mr. Levy or Jumbo Automotive, and it has fully cooperated with the Florida Highway Patrol’s inquiry into this matter. “
An AutoCheck report for Chevy, which DriveTime says it provides to all buyers, showed the prior airbag deployment in September of 2022.
So does the vehicle’s Carfax report.
When we followed up with the attorney about that, he provided the following statement:
"The prior collision was not disclosed or reported at the time DriveTime purchased the vehicle. DriveTime did not perform any repair or modification to the airbag or seatbelt retention system, and to the extent anything was modified, it was done prior to the purchase and not disclosed. Again, the Company continues to work with law enforcement as they investigate the matter and the party that allegedly performed the repairs and sold the vehicle at auction."
Since the NHTSA alert, Carfax is offering free searches for prior airbag deployment so customers can make informed decisions before buying a previously wrecked car.
More than 2 million vehicles with airbag deployments on the road
“If that’s the case, you want to take that car to a mechanic that you trust and ask them to inspect the airbag, to make sure it has the proper markings on it, to make sure that it is connected to the electronics correctly,” said Carfax spokesperson Patrick Olsen.
He says Carfax analyzed data regarding the number of cars with airbag deployment over the past two years that are back on the road.
“We found that nationwide, there were just under 2 million vehicles that fit that description, more than 106,000 of those in Florida,” Olsen said.
No one knows for sure how many of those cars received substandard airbags.
Feds crack down on illegal airbag sales
In May, a federal grand jury indicted a couple, including a Florida woman, who allegedly marketed and sold used airbag modules they illegally imported from Europe on eBay.
According to the indictment, the parts were advertised as “genuine” or “original manufacturers equipment” even though they were used, had mismatched components, and some even had burn or char markings suggesting they had been previously deployed.
“The importers are typically paying anywhere from $200 to $300 for a counterfeit airbag and then passing it off as a $1,000 legitimate replacement airbag,” Olsen said.
The indictment says the couple listed 3,600 airbags on eBay and collected $851,000 from sales.
Nobody knows where they all ended up.
“This is not a small problem. This is something people need to pay attention to,” Felix said.
Counterfeit airbags are something Kiley wishes her friend Destiny knew more about.
“The airbag was supposed to save your life, but it took her life,” Kiley said. “Make sure to get it checked out, inspections. Cause you just never know.”
If you have received a counterfeit or altered airbag in a used vehicle you purchased, contact us using the form below.