Channel 2 Investigates after local woman is maimed by airbag

A metro Atlanta woman is speaking out about the routine fender-bender that cost her her left eye.

Brandi Brewer, of Cumming, spoke only to Channel 2's Jim Strickland about the incident that prompted a national recall by General Motors and embattled airbag supplier, Takata.

Brewer and her attorney say the recall doesn't go far enough.

"I'm one of the few people that went through this and lived through it to tell the tale," she said.

Brewer recounted an October Saturday in 2013 on northbound Georgia 400. In heavy traffic, she bumped the car in front of her.

"And when I looked around to see what had happened, there was just blood everywhere," she said.

The Takata airbag in her 2013 Chevy Cruze exploded despite minimal impact. The bag broke away, uninflated, and ended up in the back seat.

Brewer says the Forsyth County deputy who responded knew something was wrong.

"And he was like 'I've never seen anything like this happen. Just calm down. Do you have your phone with you? You're going to want to take some pictures.'"

The officer used Brewer's phone to snap a picture of her bloody face and her left eye severely injured by a piece of flying shrapnel. She lost her left eye.

Multiple surgeries later, a prosthetic hides the wound, but not the memory.

"That eye cries?" asked Strickland.

"It does," Brewer said.

"Why do you still keep that picture?

"I keep it as a reminder of what happened to me," she replied.

In a regulatory filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, General Motors said Brewer's lawsuit prompted a recall of 29,019 2013 and 14 Chevy Cruzes.

The subject cars were outfitted with the Takata SDI-X air bag inflator.

Twenty-four million Takata air bag inflators are under recall for unstable chemicals, although the root cause of the issue is unknown.

A GM spokesman told Strickland the Cruze case "was a mechanical failure."

Documents reveal an ill-fitting outer ring is blamed for allowing pressure to build in the inflator, causing the explosion.

When federal regulators demanded five manufacturers conduct extensive airbag recalls nationwide, GM was excluded.

"I frankly don't understand why, because all the airbags are made by Takata. They are in essence the same," said Brewer's attorney, Yehuda Smolar.

In an email, Takata spokesman Alby Berman called the Cruze airbag defect "unique" and "different than the problems facing the other subject inflators."

Smolar doesn't buy it.

"The whole interior of the vehicle looked like a bomb went off," he said.

Strickland and producer Josh Wade inspected the vehicle at an Alabama wrecker yard. Smolar is keeping the car in a covered evidence lockup there, so it can be used as evidence in more cases.

Jagged pieces of plastic and metal litter the entire interior. Strickland found one piece still coated in blood. The exterior shows only a slight crease in the hood.

After Strickland emailed NHTSA pictures of the exterior, a spokesman said the agency wants GM to explain why the bag went off at all.

"Is this airbag only a problem in the Chevy Cruze?  I'm telling you it's not," said Smolar.

A small number of Nissans are also included in the recall, but Smolar believes the Cruze inflator is also packed with dangerous propellant.

In a filing, GM told NHTSA only older Pontiacs Vibes and Saab 9-2x models are part of the main airbag recall.

The Cruze didn't make the list.

That's one reason Brandi Brewer is speaking out.

"Are you angry?" asked Strickland.

"I am absolutely angry," she said.

GM says 70 percent of the recalled Cruzes were fixed by the end of November. Letters to the remaining owners urge them to get their cars fixed.

Takata recently announced an independent panel chaired by former transportation secretary Sam Skinner will study Takata's manufacturing to ensure new air bags are safe.

Takata is not commenting on reports that its biggest customer, Honda, will use a competitor's airbag in the new model Accord.

WSBTV