Federal auto safety regulators took a significant step on Tuesday towards recalling approximately 52 million airbag inflaters used by twelve major carmakers due to safety concerns that make them prone to rupture.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has scheduled a public meeting on October 5th to discuss its recommendation of recalling the airbags. These airbags, manufactured by ARC Automotive and Delphi Automotive Systems, have been deemed defective by the agency, though ARC has rejected these initial findings.
As per the agency’s statement, seven incidents in the United States have resulted in at least seven injuries and one fatality due to these faulty airbags.
Out of the 52 million airbags in question, 41 million were produced by ARC, with the remaining 11 million made by Delphi using a design licensed by ARC. These airbags were manufactured in China, Mexico, and Knoxville, Tenn. and were utilized by major carmakers such as BMW, Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Kia, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Stellantis, Tesla, Toyota, and Volkswagen.
In their official announcement, the agency stated, “An airbag inflater that fails by rupture not only does not perform its job as a safety device, but instead actively threatens injury or death, even in a crash where the vehicle occupants would otherwise have been unharmed.”
So far, ARC and Delphi have not responded to requests for comment.
This incident involving ARC comes after years of the safety agency investigating the inflaters made by Takata, a Japanese supplier. Takata’s airbags were found to explode violently, even when not deployed in a crash. It was ultimately revealed that Takata used a propellant that degraded over time due to exposure to humidity.
The safety agency attributed over a dozen deaths in the U.S. to the faulty Takata airbags, resulting in the recall of more than 70 million vehicles across 40 countries.
In April, the NHTSA demanded ARC to recall millions of airbag inflaters produced between 2000 and 2018 in a formal letter.
The agency’s investigation discovered that certain ARC inflaters had the potential to explode more violently than intended upon airbag deployment, posing a significant risk of injury or death.
Following the agency’s demand, G.M. voluntarily recalled nearly one million vehicles manufactured between 2014 and 2017 equipped with ARC inflaters, stating it was taking necessary precautions.
In response to the recall request, ARC declined and argued in a letter in May that there was no actual defect and the agency’s findings lacked objective technical or engineering justification.
Airbag inflaters typically contain an explosive substance like ammonium nitrate compacted into tablets stored within a metal cylinder. When a vehicle’s airbags are deployed during a severe crash, these tablets create a controlled explosion, rapidly inflating the airbags.
The safety agency found that ARC’s manufacturing process could result in weld slag, small bits of welding material, being left inside the cylinder. Upon airbag deployment, this material could clog the exit opening, leading to an explosive rupture that releases dangerous fragments of metal and plastic into the vehicle’s interior.
The agency has been examining ARC inflaters since 2015, with the most recent incident involving a rupture occurring in Michigan in March, which resulted in facial injuries to the driver of a 2017 Chevrolet Traverse.
ARC, in its May letter to regulators, denied that weld slag was the cause of two out of the seven incidents mentioned by the agency. They further stated that no definite link had been established between weld slag and the remaining five incidents.
Recalling a large number of inflaters and dealing with any ensuing legal expenses could have significant financial consequences for the manufacturers. After the massive Takata recall, the largest in automotive history, which resulted in substantial fines from U.S. regulators, Takata filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and was later acquired by Joyson Safety Systems (formerly known as Key Safety Systems).
While Takata was initially responsible for the cost of replacing the defective inflaters, automakers were left to bear the expenses after the bankruptcy. According to the most recent estimate by the safety agency, approximately 11% of the affected airbags have yet to be replaced.
The agency has faced scrutiny over its handling of vehicle defect investigations. In May, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s inspector general released a report that concluded the NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigations did not promptly identify and investigate safety defects.
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