The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened a probe into an estimated 30 million vehicles on U.S. roads that could have defective Takata airbag inflators.
This engineering analysis involves 2001-2019 models produced by Honda, Ford, Toyota, General Motors, Nissan, Subaru, Ferrari, Mazda, Daimler, BMW, Chrysler, Porsche, Jaguar Land Rover, and others.
Reuters reports that the 30 million vehicles may have been manufactured with faulty airbag inflators or may have been fitted with faulty airbags during prior recall repairs. The investigation is focusing on vehicles with a specific drying agent but the NHTSA has pointed out that there have been no reported ruptures of vehicles on the roads with airbag inflators that have these specific drying agents.
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“While no present safety risk has been identified, further work is needed to evaluate the future risk of non-recalled desiccated inflators,” the NHTSA said. “Further study is needed to assess the long-term safety of desiccated inflators.”
It is unclear how many vehicles per manufacturer are impacted by this latest investigation.
More than 67 million Takata airbag inflators have already been recalled in the United States in recent years. At least 28 people have been killed worldwide due to the faulty airbag inflators, with 19 of those deaths occurring in the United States. These inflators could rupture after breaking down after long-term exposure to high temperature fluctuations and humidity.
The NHTSA says this latest investigation “will require extensive information on Takata production processes and surveys of inflators in the field.”
