Despite their intention as a life-saving device in the unfortunate event of a crash, airbags continue to be the source of scrutiny by officials for doing harm to the people they are intended to protect.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) held a public hearing on Oct. 5 to recommend a recall of more than 50 million airbag inflators that have been linked to explosions that can cause serious or fatal injuries.
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The inflators in question were made by parts suppliers ARC Automotive and Delphi Automotive and were included as part of the airbag assemblies installed in cars from 2000 to early 2018 that were made by 12 manufacturers including General Motors (GM) -), Ford (F) -), Stellantis (STLA) -), Tesla (TSLA) -), Toyota (TM) -), Hyundai (HYMLF) -), Kia (KIMTF) -), Mercedes-Benz (DDAIF) -), BMW (BMWYY) -) and Volkswagen (VLKAF) -).
The hearing was held to consider the public’s input on the decision the NHTSA made in September, where it found that the inflators posed an unreasonable risk to safety. Officials from the agency said that the issue is caused by debris left in inflators during manufacturing that can become loose and cause a rupture. They also maintain that the odds of a serious injury was one in 370,000 airbag deployments of the inflators.
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Officials during the hearing noted that while the odds may not be high, the consequences as a result of a rupture can be severe and potentially deadly. The NHTSA said that the issue is currently linked to one fatality and seven injuries in the United States.
In May 2023, General Motors agreed to recall nearly one million vehicles with ARC airbag inflators after a reported rupture in March resulted in facial injuries to the driver of one of its vehicles. According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of GM-made vehicles in the recall population could be closer to 20 million.
An executive from ARC testified against a recall during the Oct. 5 hearing, saying to NHTSA officials that the results from the data they collected and testing they conducted suggested that the incidents linked to the inflators were "isolated" and were "not indicative of a systemic defect."
The public hearing was scheduled after ARC refused to voluntarily carry out a recall. In a September statement related to the issue, the NHTSA said that "Airbag inflators that rupture when commanded to deploy are plainly defective, as they both fail to protect vehicle occupants as they should, and, themselves, pose an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death.”
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