Faulty Airbags Have South Florida At Forefront Of Biggest Auto Recall In U.S. History

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – It is the biggest automobile recall in U.S. history.

And on Wednesday we learned South Florida has the highest amount of cars at risk.

You may have heard of the Takata airbag recall that involves some 70 million airbags.

The airbags can malfunction, firing out sharp metal at your face.

Several Florida drivers have been injured, one even killed.

There are 19 million cars recalled thus far but that number is expected to double in the next couple of years.

On Wednesday though, we are focusing on six specific cars.

2001-2002 Honda Accord, 2001-2002 Honda Civic, 2003 Honda Pilot, 2002-2003 Acura TL/CL, 2002 Honda Odyssey and 2022 Honda CR-V.

These six, CBS4 is being told, contain airbags that have a 50% chance of malfunctioning, possibly hurting, even killing you.

"These cars are too dangerous to be on the road," said Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez.  "And that's why we are here today."

Community leaders came together pleading for South Florida drivers to check their cars.

These six models specifically, Hondas and Acuras made between 2001 and 2003.

The issue at hand: defective airbags.

"Metal shrapnel shoots out at you," said independent monitor John Buretta. "It's like a grenade going off in your face."

Typically an airbag is supposed to protect you from slamming into the dashboard in an accident.

But these defective airbags, made by Takata, actually shoot out from the dashboard.

"These can come out a couple of hundred miles an hour," said attorney Jason Turchin.

In May of last year CBS4 reported on the recall, with attorney Jason Turchin sounding the alarm that eight of 11 airbag related deaths involved 2001-2004 Hondas.

"Get these cars off the road immediately," Turchin said.

Now regulators are doing just that.

"It's too serious to ignore and it's too easy to fix," said Buretta.

With these six cars having a higher risk, dealerships are being flooded with replacement airbags.

Honda and Acura owners urged to bring their vehicles in for free.

The swap takes about an hour.

State Senate Minority leader Oscar Braynon suggesting today he may consider alerting car owners through the state's annual car registration system.

"If you have Sunpass issues, those are brought up," said Braynon. "If you haven't renewed your insurance that is brought up.  A very interesting thing is if we know what type of car it is, if there is any national recalls it would be very easy for us to add that in."

It's very easy to tell if your call is a part of the recall.  You can find your VIN on the driver's side dashboard.  Take that VIN number and enter it on Airbagrecall.com.

The site will tell you if you are at risk and the next steps you can take to make sure you are safe.