The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) plans to force three automakers to conduct a recall of driver-side Takata airbags.
NHTSA Deputy Chief David Friedman has made it clear that the organization is prepared to go to court if Ford, Chrysler and BMW don’t recall an additional 5 million vehicles across the country over issues with airbag inflators made by Takata.
When the airbags deploy in affected vehicles, pieces of metal shrapnel can be hurled at the passengers.
Initially, it was believed that only high-humidity regions were affected by the airbag issue, so all three of these automakers have already conducted regional recalls. But NHTSA now has reports of two separate occurrences where the airbag inflator malfunctioned outside of those high-humidity zones, which is why the agency is demanding that companies conduct a country-wide recall.
Both Mazda and Honda haver already complied with NHTSA’s request to recall vehicles across the country. NHTSA is currently pouring over thousands of documents, “so that we can build an airtight case, so if they force us to go all the way into court — which we will if that’s what it takes to protect the American public. Then we will win,” said Friedman.
[Source: Detroit News]