3 On Your Side: Takata Air Bag Recall Expands To Nearly 34 Million Vehicles
By Jim Donovan
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's now the largest auto recall in U.S. history. Nearly 34 million airbags were declared defective today by the Japanese company that made them. This is an expansion of a previous recall and comes after a year of back and forth between safety regulators and the world's largest airbag manufacturer, Takata Corp.
"It's fair to say this is probably the most complex consumer safety recall in U.S. history," says Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. The recall involves 33. 8 million Takata made airbags. When a vehicle is involved in an accident, the chemical that inflates the air bags can explode with too much force. When that happens it blows apart a metal inflator canister and shrapnel is sent flying towards the driver and passengers.
According to Foxx, "The airbag inflators, we suspected, did not work correctly and we believed that they have been responsible for at least 5 deaths in the United States. But up until now Takata has refused to acknowledge that their airbags are defective. That changes today."
Federal safety officials and the auto industry still haven't determined what's exactly causing Takata's inflators to explode. 17-million vehicles had already been recalled to fix the problem, this expansion of the recall effects some of the most popular vehicles on the road. Foxx says, "This recall involves 11 auto manufacturers, many different part suppliers, not just Takata, and roughly double the number of vehicles built in the United States every year."
Recall notices will be sent out so that vehicle owners can get their cars fixed. But this isn't expected to be a quick process. The replacement parts have to be manufactured and shipped, and then the work has to be done. When you're dealing with millions of vehicles, this is a huge undertaking.
For more information visit: http://www.safercar.gov/rs/takata/index.html
