Complications in air bag warning
The U.S. government is urging owners of nearly eight million cars and trucks to have air bags repaired because of potential danger to drivers and passengers. But the effort is being complicated by confusing information and a malfunctioning website.
The U.S. government is urging owners of nearly eight million cars and trucks to have air bags repaired because of potential danger to drivers and passengers. But the effort is being complicated by confusing information and a malfunctioning website.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says inflator mechanisms in the air bags can rupture, causing metal fragments to fly out when the bags are deployed. The inflators are made by Japanese parts supplier Takata Corp.
Safety advocates say at least four people have died from the problem, which they claim could affect more than 20 million cars nationwide. On Wednesday, NHTSA added 3.1 million vehicles to an initial warning covering 4.7 million cars and SUVs.
Car owners might have difficulty determining whether their vehicles are equipped with the potentially dangerous air bags. The warning covers certain models made by BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, and Toyota.
Most of the 7.8 million vehicles are subject to existing recalls. But manufacturers have limited the recalls to high-humidity regions, excluding cars and trucks in states farther north.
NHTSA says vehicle owners in Florida, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Marianas, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and "limited areas near the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Louisiana" should pay special attention to the warning.
The agency has twice corrected the number of vehicles affected and acknowledged that a list it released Monday was not completely accurate. NHTSA urged people to use its website to see if their cars are affected - but a feature allowing people to check for recalls by vehicle identification number malfunctioned Monday night and still was not operational Wednesday.
Automakers have been recalling cars to fix the problem for several years, but neither Takata nor NHTSA have identified a firm cause for it.
The agency opened a formal investigation in June, and a theory put forth in agency documents suggests that the chemical used to inflate the air bags can be altered by high humidity, making them explode with too much force while deploying.
"It's in a total state of uproar right now," said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, a nonprofit advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader.
Staff members for the House Energy and Commerce Committee have asked NHTSA to brief them on the Takata air bags.