National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced last Monday that almost 5 million cars sold in USA should be recalled because of potentially deadly flow in their airbag safety systems. Car manufacturers reacted quickly and added a few millions more, making it almost 8 million vehicles long list that should be recalled and have their Takata airbags replaced.
-
The danger that airbags present
The problem with these “killer” airbags lies in the fact that while deploying they may tear up their brackets taking with them smaller shrapnel pieces of plastic and metal which could cause lethal wounds to driver or the passengers. Even smaller car accident that shouldn’t represent almost any kind of danger can turn out to be a lethal incident should an airbags be deployed. This is exactly what happened to 51 years old lady from Florida driving a 2001 Honda Accord. According to police and medical examiner reports, she would have certainly survived injuries from traffic accident only if airbags were not deployed, causing massive trauma to her chest and neck which in the end were cause of death.
-
Which models of vehicles are affected
All ten major car manufacturers selling units in USA were and still are using Takata airbags. Most of those “faulty” were installed in models assembled from year 2000 through 2008. GM officials said that there may be other models that were made after this period still using those same old and very dangerous airbags. Toyota, on the other hand has already instructed all dealerships to manually turn off airbags in all cars that are sold till they can confirm that the airbags installed in them are safe. Other manufacturers have also issued a warning to their car users through email notifications asking them to get their vehicles to the nearest dealership and have their faulty parts replaced at once. This is being done at the spot and free of charge, and if there are no replacement airbags in stock servicemen are instructed to put a warning sign on the front door advising passengers not to use the front seat.
-
How to check if you have those deadly airbags installed
If you haven’t received a notice from your car manufacturer you can still check if your vehicle is on the recall list simply by visiting either official manufacturer website or by checking on the government safe-car website by inputting your vehicle identification number (VIN). Should you find your vehicle on the recall list it would be advisable not to drive you get an appointment with your dealership in order to solve the problem or as Toyota advised manually turn off your airbags.
This recall is just one of many that happened this year in the United States. 2014 is the year in which the most vehicles have been recalled to additional services because of safety issues since 1970 when the traffic safety administration was found. Over 56 million vehicles were called back for various types of defects, which bring out another question – are we safe in traffic?
