Automaker Honda announced Thursday, March 19, the addition of nearly 105,000 vehicles to its increasing number of recalls due to defective driver’s side air bags.
Vehicles added to the list include about 89,000 Pilot SUVs from the 2008 model year, 11,000 Civics from 2004 and 5,000 Accords from 2001.
At least five deaths deaths worldwide have been linked to these faulty air bags, manufactured by Japanese company Takata Corp, which have inflators that can explode and shoot shrapnel into the cabin and hit drivers and passengers.
Dealers will replace driver air bag inflators at no charge, and Honda said it will send letters to owners of vehicles in the expanded recall “over time” as replacement parts become available.
Honda has now recalled 5.5 million Acura cars and SUVs throughout the United States from the 2001 to 2011 due to faulty air bags.
As the Takata’s biggest customer in the US, Honda is being hit hardest by the flawed bags.
Nine other automakers have recalled more than 17 million vehicles nationwide due to the Takata product. The Associated Press reported that in the US, up to 30 million vehicles could be equipped with Takata air bags.
Worldwide, 22 million vehicles have been recalled due to the problem.
Honda said this is the first recall of 2008 Pilots with air bag-related issues. In documents posted Thursday by US safety regulators, the automaker said it uncovered the additional vehicles by cross checking Takata inflator part numbers with Honda vehicle identification numbers in its factory records.
“The process required a significant amount of time to cross-check large databases, but helped to assure that each vehicle had been identified,” Honda spokesman Chris Martin wrote in an email after the announcement of the driver’s side recall last year.
Martin said Honda has no new reports of inflators exploding related to the recall expansion and has no reason to believe further recalls will be necessary.
On Feb. 20, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration began fining Takata $14,000 per day for failing to fully cooperate with the government’s investigation. As of Thursday, the fines have shot up to $392,000. The Justice Department is also investigating the company for possible criminal prosecution.
Takata uses ammonium nitrate, an inexpensive chemical, to deploy its air bags quickly. However, temperature changes, such as prolonged airborne moisture, can cause destabilization that can result in the explosion of the metal canister designed to contain the burst.
In 2014, separate recalls were announced for vehicles in high-humidity areas including California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana Mississippi, Georgia, Puerto Rico, Texas, Alabama, South Carolina and the US Virgin Islands.
Other automakers that have issued recalls related to Takata air bags are: Toyota, Nissan, BMW and Mitsubishi, Mazda, Chrysler, Subaru, General Motors and Ford.
(With reports from Asian Journal, Associated Press and USA Today)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend March 21-24, 2015 Sec. D pg.2)
