The U.S. government, through the National Highway Traffic Safety, has recently issued the recall of another 5 million Takata airbags. This was announced by the NHTSA after another driver died because of a faulty airbag bearing the same brand.
According to safety officials, it was the ninth U.S. death linked to the airbag. The particular airbags are those installed on the driver's side. Cars manufactured by Audi and Volkswagen are now also involved in the mishaps.
This move brings a total of 28 million Takata airbags that are being recalled for defects. It has increased the number of vehicles in the U.S. that are affected, and involved additional carmakers to those which have been previously given recall orders. The NHTSA says the number of vehicles could be as high as 24 million.
The recent announcement was triggered by the death of a Ford pickup truck driver, in addition to the tests the agency has conducted on suspected defective air bags. Faulty airbags have inflators that erupt and project shrapnel into the driver and the front passenger causing physical injuries or death.
To date, Takata, a Japanese company, has been ordered to recall approximately 28 million airbags all over the world for the same problem. The company has been accused of attempting to hide this safety issue.
Gordon Trowbridge, NHTSA spokesman, admits that this is a serious problem. "This is a massive safety crisis," he explained.
Previously, the NHTSA fined Takata for an unprecedented $200 million for misleading the safety agency with inaccurate and inadequate information about its airbags, as well as for not recalling their airbags when the company was informed about their safety issues.
According to NHTSA, there is also a possibility that additional millions of vehicles with inflators that contain ammonium nitrate will be recalled by 2018 if Takata is not able to prove that they have no safety issues.
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