Massive Recall Aims to Fix Airbag Flaw Linked to Traffic Deaths

By BETH DALBEY (Patch Staff)

Under pressure from national traffic safety officials, Japanese air bag manufacturer Takata said Tuesday it would recall 33.8 million automobiles to correct a flaw that causes the devices to deploy with too much force and send shrapnel flying around the vehicle.

The Transportation Department, which has been pressuring Takata for months to declare air bags installed in millions of vehicles defective, said the manufacturer has entered into a consent agreement to double the size of earlier recalls, making it the largest product recall in U.S. history, USA Today reports.

The flaw has been linked to six deaths and more than 100 injuries. Takata is one of the auto industry’s leading suppliers of air bags.

The government “is taking the proactive steps necessary to ensure that defective inflators are replaced with safe ones as quickly as possible, and that the highest risks are addressed first,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement.

Also in a statement, Karl Brauer, senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book, said “a recall of this scope illustrates the potential for massive automaker expense and consumer inconvenience when a common, mass-produced part is defective.”

“While this is the largest consumer recall in history it’s likely we’ll see future vehicle recalls of similar, if not larger, size as the automotive industry becomes more globalized,” the statement read.

The expected 33.8 million vehicle recall includes 17 million Takata air bag inflators recalled since 2013 by 10 major U.S. automakers, who acted after Takata refused to declare the airbags defective, The Detroit News reports.

Those recalls affected BMW AG, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., Honda Motor Co., Mazda Motor Co., Mitsubishi, Nissan Motor Co., Subaru Motors USA and Toyota Motor Corp. Honda has been the hardest hit by the air bag malfunctions.

Victims who were injured by the air bags looked like they had been shot or stabbed.

The cause of the defect is unclear. Takata said previously that the problems occurred in vehicles in high-humidity areas, CNN reports.

The air bag problems go back at least 15 years, The New York Times reports.

To date, the largest product recall in history occurred in 1982, when 31 million bottles of Tylenol were recalled after a poison scare.

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Photo via Flickr user jo.schz

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