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NHTSA demands recall of BMW, GM, Chrysler, and Hyundai airbags
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has demanded the recall of 67 million airbag inflators, citing a safety defect. According to documents released on Friday, auto supplier ARC Automotive Inc. has rejected the US agency's request.
The automotive safety authority stated that the airbags pose an unreasonable risk of death or injury. In a letter to the Tennessee company, the NHTSA said:
"Although the cracks are accumulating, ARC has not made a defect determination that would necessitate a recall of this product line. Airbag inflators that propel metal shards into vehicle occupants instead of properly inflating the deployed airbag present an unreasonable risk of death and injury."
ARC refers to few cases
ARC airbag inflators are installed in vehicles from General Motors, the Chrysler parent company Stellantis, BMW, Hyundai Motor, Kia Corp, and others. General Motors has agreed to recall almost 1 million vehicles with ARC airbag inflators after a rupture in March led to facial injuries for a driver. ARC has dismissed NHTSA's preliminary conclusion that there is a defect, arguing that it is based on seven ruptures in the United States. The NHTSA requires ARC to prove the contrary - that the 67 million inflators in this population, produced over 18 years, are not defective. The company will continue to collaborate with NHTSA and automakers to assess the ruptures, explained a spokesperson for the automotive supplier.
Fatality in Canada
The NHTSA initiated an investigation of more than 8 million airbag inflators manufactured by ARC in 2016, after a driver in Canada was killed in a Hyundai vehicle. The investigations have been ongoing for more than seven years. The NHTSA began its investigation in July 2015 following two reported injuries. According to the NHTSA, a total of 67 million affected driver and passenger front airbags had been shipped by January 2018. Delphi, which was acquired by Autoliv, manufactured about 11 million of these airbags under a licensing agreement with ARC, while the remaining volume was produced by ARC.
12 vehicle manufacturers affected
ARC pointed out that several test programs were conducted with airbags from scrapped or other vehicles, in which not a single rupture occurred. The 67 million inflators were manufactured for the US market on multiple production lines in various plants and were used by 12 vehicle manufacturers in dozens of models.
“None of these manufacturers have concluded that there is a systemic defect in these inflators,” emphasized ARC.
NHTSA has been investigating ruptures in airbag inflators for more than 15 years.
In the past ten years, more than 67 million Takata airbags have been recalled in the US and more than 100 million worldwide - the largest recall in automotive safety history.
Since 2009, more than 30 deaths worldwide - including 24 deaths in the US - and hundreds of injuries in vehicles from various automobile manufacturers have been linked to Takata airbag inflators that can explode and release metal fragments inside cars and trucks. The most recent fatality occurred in July 2022 in a 2010 Chrysler 300, one of three Stellantis fatalities within a seven-month period.
Translated automatically from German.
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