Faulty airbag recall expands

Nov. 12, 2014
Automakers, including Nissan and Honda, have announced additional recalls related to faulty airbags from Japanese manufacturer Takata. 
Automakers have announced additional recalls related to faulty airbags from Japanese manufacturer Takata. Both Nissan and Honda announced additional recalls this week, urging drivers to have the airbag inflators replaced in the affected models.

There have been a number of incidents in which the airbag inflator ruptured during a crash, sending metal fragments flying into the passenger compartment. Several people have been injured, and at least four deaths have been reported involving Honda vehicles. All of the ruptures occurred in hot, humid areas of the country.

The most recent death occurred in Los Angeles last year, when a driver was killed by an airbag in his 2002 Acura TL.

Nissan North America is recalling certain model year 2003-2004 Nissan Pathfinder, 2004-2006 Nissan Sentra, 2003-2005 Infiniti FX35 and FX45, 2003-2004 Infiniti I35, and 2006 Infiniti M35 and M45 vehicles originally sold, or currently registered, in areas with high humidity, including Puerto Rico, Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Saipan, American Samoa, Florida and adjacent counties in southern Georgia, as well as the coastal areas of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

The Honda announcement affects the 2001-2005 Honda Civic, 2003-2004 Civic CNG and Element, 2002-2005 CR-V, 2002-2004 Odyssey, 2003-2005 Accord, Pilot, Civic Hybrid, and Acura MDX, 2005 Acura RL and 2006 Honda Ridgeline.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating whether the Takata air bag inflators manufactured between 2000 and 2007 were improperly sealed. The regional Nissan recalls now cover nearly 60,000 vehicles.

However, more than 11 million vehicles overall in the U.S. and 17 million globally have been recalled because of the airbag defect.

Takata, which holds about 22 percent of the global air bag market, reported a July-September loss of 35 billion yen ($306 million), and will record a 25 billion yen ($218 million) loss for the fiscal year through March 2015. In addition, the company previously booked nearly $400 million in special losses related to recalls.

The United States attorney's office in Manhattan is investigating the Takata air bags as well, and Congress has asked the Government Accountability Office to conduct its own investigation.

Evidence has also emerged that the manufacturer may have known about the defect for nearly a decade.

A New York Times report published on Nov. 6, citing several former Takata employees, claims that after a ruptured airbag injured a driver in Alabama, the company secretly tested dozens of airbags in 2004 and found that the inflators could crack.

Takata claims it first tested the airbags in 2008. Those tests led to the first recalls of the malfunctioning airbags. The Times report also cites internal Takata documents that show quality control issues that could have affected the performance of the airbags, as well as manufacturing problems at some of the company's North American production facilities.

Three U.S. Senators have now called for a criminal investigation into Takata's activities. Richard Blumenthal (D.-Conn.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), and Clair McCaskill (D-Mo.).

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