A hidden threat to drivers

Opinion: April 11, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Los Angeles Times: In 2008, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a study examining fatal accidents in which a car’s air bag should have deployed but didn’t. The most common reason wasn’t poor manufacturing by automakers. It was that the air bag was simply missing, never replaced after a previous crash.

The numbers weren’t large, averaging 51 accidents a year nationwide over the five years studied. But that doesn’t mean there’s no cause for concern. Who knows how many more cars are on the road without air bags? Many used cars being offered for sale have been in accidents, then salvaged and resold, possibly without air bags. And the buyers may never know.

Air bags cost $1,000 to $3,000, expensive enough — and difficult enough to check on — that some auto repair shops charge for replacing them but don’t do the work. In 2009, a jury awarded $15 million to a couple whose son was killed in a truck whose air bags they paid to have replaced after they bought it as a salvage vehicle. The steering column had instead been stuffed with paper.

A bill introduced this year by California state Sen. Leland Yee would make air bag repair fraud a crime punishable by a $5,000 fine, up to a year in prison, or both. It’s a good start.

Meanwhile, used-car buyers should be cautioned that kicking the tires doesn’t go nearly far enough.