Thousands of vehicles in Pittsburgh area under recall for faulty airbags - "They explode with much greater force."
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - It's now been 10 years since the major recall of Takata airbags in 6.4 million vehicles across the United States.
Despite the fact the airbags have been responsible for 27 deaths and 400 injuries - many cars are still on the road with faulty airbags, so what to do to keep your family safe?
The deaths continue to mount and with the recall still out there, it's all very avoidable.
The family loads into the car and off you go, perhaps oblivious to the danger just inches in front of you when your airbags deploy.
"They explode with much greater force and that turned the metal rung around them into shrapnel and exploded that into the car," said Patrick Olsen of CARFAX.
According to Olsen, numerous reminders have been sent to the owners of the cars under this recall, and at this point, the cars are on their second, third, or even fourth owners which makes it hard to track the owners down.
He said the automakers have gone to extraordinary lengths to find the owners.
"But clearly, they haven't reached everybody," he said.
Olsen said the CARFAX study finds that 6.4 million vehicles still need the repair and the airbags are in most of the big auto brands: Ford, GM, Honda, Toyota, VW, Subaru, BMW, Mazda, and Nissan among others that have been built since 2001.
"There are 204,000 vehicles like this in Pennsylvania and 46,000 in the Pittsburgh market," Olsen said. "So, clearly, there are a lot of owners that need to get the news."
The free repair takes around a half-hour to 40 minutes and the problem and risk go away.
However, Olsen fears owners have put the notice aside and it becomes out of sight, out of mind.
"As time goes by and nothing goes wrong with the car and they think, 'I'm out of the woods here' and nothing could be further from the truth," he said.
So, why the push now?
We are going into the hot summer months and volatile chemicals that are the source of the issue get more volatile with the heat and are more likely to cause the shrapnel problem.
To find out if your car is affected by this recall, grab your VIN number and go to one of the following websites: CARFAX, SafeAirBags, or the NHTSA, and input the number in the search engine, and it will let you know if you need the repairs.