A Takata airbag, which can explode and launch metal shards when deployed, has been linked to the death of a man in Sydney - the 18th death blamed on the airbags worldwide.
The 58-year-old man was killed in a collision at Cabramatta on July 13 when his Honda CRV slammed into another vehicle at an intersection in Sydney's southwest.
NSW Police on Friday said a faulty airbag was likely to blame after the driver was "struck in the neck by a small fragment".
"Further investigations revealed the vehicle in the incident was subject of a worldwide recall for a faulty airbag," they said in a statement.
The female passenger, along with the male driver and passenger of the other car, were treated by paramedics in Cabramatta before being taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Dodgy Takata airbags have previously been linked to 17 deaths and at least 180 injuries worldwide.
The Japanese manufacturer has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States and Japan.
The company faces tens of billions of dollars in costs and liabilities resulting from almost a decade of recalls and lawsuits.
The death highlighted the need for drivers to check if their vehicle was on the recall list, Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey said in a statement.
"These potentially lethal products have already sparked the largest automotive recall in history and have killed more than a dozen people worldwide," Mr Godfrey said.
Prior to last week's incident, there had not been any fatalities involving Takata airbags in Australia.
However, in late April a 21-year-old Northern Territory woman suffered serious injuries when one of the faulty airbags didn't deploy properly during a crash in Darwin.
She was struck in the head by a small metal fragment, NT Police said at the time.
"This type of crash, in normal circumstances, would not have caused this level of injury," Sergeant Mark Casey said of incident in Darwin.
The recall covers approximately 100 million vehicles worldwide and 2.1 million in Australia.
The airbags were used in some vehicles from 1999 to as recently as 2016.
Police in both NSW and the NT have urged motorists to check the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's product safety website, and to act as soon as possible if their vehicle is included in the recall.
Takata have been contacted for comment.
