Your Guide To The Explosive Airbag Recall That Affects 14 Million Cars

Does this airbag snafu effect you?

The General Motors’ recall

of its units for ignition switch defect is old news, but the latest instance of recall that has grabbed headlines is the taking back of over 14 million cars comprising of airbags manufactured by Takata, the Japanese auto parts supplying company.

This is a more serious recall, considering the fact that this recalls has to do more with a major safety issue – that of airbags which can possibly explode and kill or at least injure the occupants of vehicles. The fact that a whopping 14 million cars are under threat makes the recall even graver that the recent ones.

This recall is not specific to Takata alone. It has also affected vehicles from a number of other vehicle brands, such as General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Honda and BMW. This specific recall relates to the deployment of airbags, that may take place even in the absence of any collision, and it may lead to the spraying of metal components into the direction of passengers and drivers.

The first locations that are being targeted for the recall include those with high humidity and heat. This is due to the belief that corrosion might be cause of the rupture of airbags to incorrectly deploy or explode.

The states that have been impacted the most include Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Hawaii, Florida and the parts of Texas and the Gulf Coast which are more humid. Guam, Saipan and American Samoa are some of the other territories that have been affected.

Airbags from Takata have been found to cause a minimum of 139 reported cases of injuries, some of which are even fatal. The injuries have resulted from metal shrapnel which were ejected from defective inflator modules at the time of airbag deployment. At present, there are more than 30 million bags from Takata being used in cars in the U.S and the figure reaches a staggering 100 million all over the world. The U.S. government has demanded an expanded recall of airbags to be done by Takata Corp. but the company has so far refused to comply with it and has passed the buck to auto manufacturers in the US and elsewhere instead.

Source: Data and information presented on this blog have been sourced from http://jalopnik.com/your-guide-to-the-explosive-airbag-recall-that-effects-1634598717