List of Vehicles Impacted by Airbag Recalls That May Pose Risk of Injury, Death

Consumers, regulators and lawmakers are growing more and more concerned over the risk of severe and potentially deadly injury that may be caused by airbags used in millions of vehicles sold in the United States, leading to increased efforts to raise awareness among consumers about the importance of checking if their vehicle airbags may be on the recall list.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched a public awareness campaign this week, designed to urge all owners of vehicles with recalled airbags manufactured by Takata Corp. to obtain immediate repairs, especially if they live in more humid climates, where the risk of problems may be greater.

Concerns among consumers who were checking whether their vehicle is listed with a recalled airbag caused the NHTSA website to crash earlier this week, and some lawmakers have also called for the NHTSA and auto manufacturers to come before then for hearings on the airbag problems.

At least four deaths and an unconfirmed number of severe injuries may have been caused by Takata airbags used in vehicles sold by Honda, Chrysler, Ford, Nissan, Toyota and other auto makers. The defective airbags may over-inflated, causing shrapnel or projectiles to be shot towards passengers at high speeds.

More than 12 million vehicles with Takata airbags have been recalled worldwide, with at least 7.8 million sold in the United States.

Airbag Recall List

According to the NHTSA’s SafeCars.org website, the following vehicles have been identified so far by manufacturers as potentially containing Takata airbags:

The recent awareness campaign launched by the NHTSA was prompted by the recent death of a Florida woman, who suffered additional injuries in a fatal car crash when a Takata airbag that sent shrapnel pieces large enough to cause serious neck lacerations. According to a report by the New York Times, the lacerations to the woman’s neck were so severe, local Florida police officers initially though the woman had been stabbed. However, the medical examiner said the injuries were not the cause of her death and were only a contributing factor among a number of injuries.

NHTSA Administrator David Friedman, announced it is imperative that owners of impacted vehicles have them inspected by their dealers, especially recalled vehicles bought or registered in Alabama, American Samoa, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, Saipan, Texas, and the Virgin Islands where humidity and temperatures are high enough to cause inadvertent air bag deployment.

Although the theory is not conclusive, Friedman believes that extended exposure to consistently high humidity and temperatures has shown to be an apparent factor in the air bags unexpectedly deploying.

To further the controversy, recent documents have surfaced at Takata Corp. indicating their engineers are concerned about similar problems in vehicles as recent as 2011. Internal emails show Takata executives chastised its Montclova, Mexico manufacturing plant after a defective weld was discovered in a Takata air bag that made it from the parts supplier all the way to the manufacturer.