takata air bags As deaths rise, so do chances for total recall

Associated Press

DETROIT

As the Takata air-bag saga drags on, concerns are growing that tens of millions of U.S. drivers with cars that haven’t been recalled could be at risk of death or injury from the potentially defective devices.

Federal safety regulators last month confirmed that a South Carolina man’s death in December was caused by a driver’s air-bag inflator that wasn’t under recall. It was the ninth Takata-related fatality in the U.S.

In a Feb. 10 letter to Mark Rosekind, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., urged the agency to recall all Takata inflators in U.S. cars. He said the agency’s current approach of issuing recalls piecemeal, “appears to be confusing many consumers” who wonder if their cars have an unsafe air bag that hasn’t been recalled.

Since 2008, 14 automakers have recalled 24 million vehicles to replace the inflators, which can rupture in a crash, shooting metal shards at the driver and passengers.

Experts say there could be as many as 50 million Takata air-bag inflators in cars that have yet to be called back for repairs. For drivers of those vehicles, finding out if their car has a Takata inflator can be tricky. They either have to persuade a dealer to take apart the car to look, or get the automaker to tell them. Some, such as General Motors and Ford, won’t tell. Nissan and Toyota won’t say if they will disclose a Takata inflator. Fiat Chrysler, Mazda, Mercedes and BMW say they’ll tell if asked.

NHTSA spokesman Gordon Trowbridge says the agency doesn’t have the data yet to justify a recall of every Takata inflator. The agency has given Takata until the end of 2018 to solve the problem or issue a blanket recall. Takata says it continues to investigate the cause; NHTSA and the auto industry also have investigations underway.

Takata is nearly alone among inflator makers in using the chemical ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion that inflates the bags in a crash. Tests show that over time, high temperatures and humidity can degrade the chemical, causing it to explode with too much force, rupturing a metal canister that’s supposed to contain the explosion. The pieces can hit a car’s occupants.

Initially, the recalls targeted older vehicles along the Gulf Coast, and NHTSA has ordered that dealers in those areas receive the bulk of replacement inflators as they’re made. But the latest recall from Volkswagen includes cars from 2014, and a recent Honda recall has a 2016 model.