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Editorial: More action needed on auto airbags

 
People should not still be dying from faulty airbags more than a year after one of the world’s leading airbag manufacturers admitted to serious problems with its product and automakers launched a massive recall.
People should not still be dying from faulty airbags more than a year after one of the world’s leading airbag manufacturers admitted to serious problems with its product and automakers launched a massive recall.
Published Feb. 5, 2016

People should not still be dying from faulty airbags more than a year after one of the world's leading airbag manufacturers admitted to serious problems with its product and automakers launched a massive recall. Yet the latest fatal accident involved a truck that was not included in the initial recalls, an oversight that cost an unsuspecting man his life. Car manufacturers have an obligation to recall faulty products and replace them faster, because millions of people remain vulnerable to serious accidents.

The airbag scandal came to light in 2014 when the Takata Corp., a Japanese company, admitted its airbags could become overpressurized, explode and send shrapnel into drivers and front-seat passengers. The company first learned of problems with its products in 2004 when evidence surfaced about faulty airbags in some Hondas. It took Takata years to own up to a systemic product failure and even longer for Honda to order a recall, which it finally did in 2008 when it pulled about 4,000 cars off the road. That proved to be the first in what would become an avalanche of recalls as fatalities linked to faulty airbags continued to mount, including the October 2014 death of Hien Tran, an Orlando woman who died when shrapnel from her 2001 Honda Accord flew into her neck. Automakers have now recalled 24 million vehicles from 14 different car manufacturers.

Yet no one told Joel Knight that something might be wrong with his 2006 Ford Ranger. Knight, a 52-year-old welder from South Carolina, died in December after he struck a stray cow and his airbag inflated. The faulty airbag sent shrapnel into his neck that pierced his vertebrae, according to the New York Times. Knight's vehicle was not a part of the massive recall, though Ford recalled the model after his death. Knight's is the 10th fatality linked to faulty airbags. His family described him a fastidious caretaker of his truck who would have had it repaired if he had been aware of the problem. Automakers, Takata and federal regulators never gave him a chance.

Manufacturers have a basic contract with consumers to ensure that products work as designed. If products fail, manufacturers should repair or replace them and warn consumers about defects and potential dangers. Separately, federal regulators are supposed to serve as consumer watchdogs. But the airbag scandal illustrates the systemic problems in an auto industry marked by too little accountability and a glaring lack of transparency. The public deserves better.

Takata has sold 54 million metal inflators for airbags in the United States that contain ammonium nitrate, which is sensitive to heat and humidity and can explode. So far, only 28 million airbag inflators have been subject to recall. Knight's death makes it clear that the effort should be expanded, a sentiment echoed this week by U.S. senators from Massachusetts and Connecticut who called on the Obama administration to force a broader recall. Separately, Sen. Bill Nelson said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration needs to take over and remove Takata from the recall process. It is an expensive, time-intensive proposition, but saving lives is well worth it.

In response to the outcry, Honda said this week that it would expand its recall of cars in North America by 2.23 million vehicles, bringing the total number of recalls by the manufacturer to as many as 8 million automobiles. This is what the company should have been doing from the beginning. Other manufacturers who use Takata airbags should join them.

Consumers who have been notified about a recall should take it seriously. Only about 30 percent of the problematic airbag inflators have been repaired. When the parts to fix them arrive, consumers should make time to have the repairs made. Anything less is akin to playing Russian roulette each time a driver takes the wheel.