Woman says exploding airbag left her blind
A North Oaks woman permanently blinded by an airbag is speaking out because she says she doesn't want anyone else to suffer the same fate.
Shashi Chopra said she was riding in the front passenger seat of her BMW and traveling about 30 miles per hour in March 2013 when another vehicle hit the driver side of her car. The incident is still under investigation but she said it appears the force at which the airbag deployed damaged her eyes, not any flying material.
Chopra says BMW notified the family a couple of months ago, about a year and a half after the accident, that the Takata Corp. airbags were defective. Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar told Chopra and her family she is trying to find out why the company didn't do more to alert the public about defects.
Last week, Klobuchar questioned a Takata executive at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing. She wanted to know why the company didn't notify automakers of potentially dangerous defects as soon as they discovered them in 2004.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
"I still didn't get my question answered about 2004 and these tests that they did that had to be uncovered by the New York Times," Klobuchar said as she sat at the Chopra's dining room table Monday. "It appears [Takata] destroyed a lot of the records from the tests and that it's impossible to figure out exactly what happened."
Klobuchar also wrote a letter to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx last week urging him to take action to get unsafe vehicles like the 2002 BMW Shashi Chopra was injured in, off the roads.
Chopra says she was an independent person before the accident. She used to work at the family's restaurant and enjoyed walking the dog.
"All that has stopped now," she said. "I can't do anything."
Chopra's husband Pramod says his wife's medical expenses have taken a financial toll on the family. He's cut back on the hours he spends running the family restaurant. Pramod says their daughter Tina quit her full-time job and their son Vikas changed jobs in order to stay home to help out.
"Financially it has hurt us a lot," said Pramod choking back tears. "We have taken a personal loan from our friends, just to get by."
The Chopras say they're considering several options, including a lawsuit.