WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — A Utah teen’s death is at the center of a new wrongful death lawsuit amid urgent warnings from federal traffic safety officials about dangerous airbag inflators.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration warned used car buyers in January that Chinese replacement airbag inflators, which may have been illegally imported into the U.S., are substandard and dangerous.
They say 10 crashes have resulted in serious injury or death, including a Utah teen who died in what her family’s attorney is calling a survivable crash last summer.
It was July 30, 2025, when 17-year-old Alexia De La Rosa got into what attorneys called a minor crash. But they say instead, the driver’s side airbag deployed like a "grenade."
The defective airbag exploded and sent shrapnel flying at De La Rosa, which they say killed her.
This happened in West Valley City, with officers suggesting at the time that speed may have been a factor in her death. But they noted both the other cars involved in the chain-reaction crash drove off with no injuries and next to no damage.
Morgan and Morgan has now filed suit against Auto Savvy, a national used car dealer that has three Utah locations in Woods Cross, Draper and Lindon.
The attorneys allege that the company repaired the teen’s 2019 Hyundai Sonata with these cheaper, counterfeit airbag inflators before selling it to her family.
FOX 13's sister station in Denver talked with the lead attorney on this case, Andrew Parker Felix, who says Alexia’s mom, Tessie, got the car for her as a birthday present.
But when she needed the protection most, they say her car’s safety equipment turned into a death sentence.
“Tessie was told that this car was just as good as new — she was never told that it was repaired with defective, illegal Chinese airbag inflators,” said Felix. “You essentially get an explosion of jagged metal that is shot at your face and neck at hundreds of miles an hour. I mean, it is really the stuff of nightmares."
NHTSA says there could be as many as 10,000 of these faulty replacements on the roads.
So they’re urging anyone who’s bought a used car — especially if it has a salvage or rebuilt title — to learn your vehicle’s history and ensure that your car has genuine airbag inflators.
