Car Recall Over Dodgy Airbags

July 24th, 2017

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It’s good to get important safety information out there, particularly when some of the cars on our roads could be really quite unsafe.  Recently, there has been a Takata airbags recall due to some faulty airbag systems placed in certain modern cars of specific makes and models.

A US authority investigated for underlying faults present in airbag systems.  They had information that certain airbags had had a problem with the airbag inflators.  In order to confirm the fault was at large, they had a research and engineering firm Battelle perform testing on some airbags by test airbag inflators in their lab.  The results were quite alarming and showed that in Takata airbags there were airbag inflators that had deteriorated with age and, when they were deployed, the inflators exploded and shattered the casing material.  If there did happen to be an occupant behind one of these airbags in a car accident, then the hurtling material, set off like a grenade, would strike the seat occupants head and chest areas causing severe injury and in some cases death.

The airbag inflators contain ammonium nitrate propellants which can become volatile as they age when exposed to changing temperatures, humidity and moisture.  This volatility can cause them to explode and thrust shrapnel into both drivers and passengers inside the vehicle.  The flying debris has been known to puncture people’s eyes, face, neck and chest.  Faulty Takata airbags have also been linked to 18 deaths globally.

The results in the testing drove the car manufacturers (who had used Takata airbag systems in their cars) to reacall the vehicles to fix the problem.  This has been the biggest car recall in history, and there has been a waiting list for the replacement airbag.  A further investigation has also shown that some of the manufacturers have replaced the old airbag systems with similar systems that will end up with the same problem as they age, so the new device might not be a permanent fix. Not a very bright thing to do!

Choice investigators have said that millions of cars still have faulty airbags, and they want the car industry to do more to raise public awareness.  They also state that a number of car manufacturers — including BMW, Toyota, Mazda, Lexus and Subaru —have been replacing the airbags with like-for-like devices as a temporary fix – ultimately not fixing the problem.

Tom Godfrey, a spokesman for Choice, said that “Refitting vehicles with the same dangerous airbags still leaves people driving ticking time-bombs.”

If you think your car could be one of the 2.1 million Australian vehicles recalled, Product Safety Australia says that you should contact your local dealership or your manufacturer and find out if your car needs to have the airbags replaced.

At the time of writing, the list below names the makes and models of the known cars to be at risk of the fault.  This list is updated as new makes and models are recalled, so you can look up www.productsafety.gov.au for further details.

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