Chrysler Yields To Urging On Takata Airbag Recall
by Hiroko Tabuchi, The New York Times
Alexauto321/Wikimedia Commons
Bowing to pressure from federal regulators, Chrysler said on Friday that it would recall 3.3 million additional cars across the United States and worldwide to fix defective driver’s-side airbags made by Takata, the troubled Japanese supplier.
Safety regulators have been urging affected automakers and Takata to recall all cars that may be carrying airbags with faulty inflaters, which can rupture in an accident and send metal fragments into the vehicle. At least five deaths and dozens of injuries have been linked to the defect, and 11 automakers around the world have recalled nearly 20 million cars since 2008 to replace affected airbags.
In the United States, Takata says that the evidence so far suggests that only cars in areas of high humidity are at risk, because moisture is thought to destabilize the explosives that help inflate the airbag. Automakers have for months limited their recalls to those regions.
But that position quickly came under fire from safety experts, lawmakers and more recently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which had first backed limiting the recalls.
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Tags: Auto Safety, Recalls