Three Major Auto Manufacturers Recall 34 Million Cars for Defective Airbags
Technology is continually improving in the automobile industry, so much so that accidents are not ending with as many deadly consequences as was once seen. For those that grew up in the 60s through the early 80s, airbags were not something that cars had, leading to many serious injuries and fatalities. Once airbags were invented and found their way into vehicles, drivers were able to go out on the road with that much more confidence, knowing that an unfortunate accident might not always end with a horrible result.
As innovations have become more prevalent, so has the need for recalls in the auto industry. New safety equipment is great, but there is always a need for a tweak now and then. So it is not unusual to see recall notices coming out on individual manufacturers occasionally. However, a highly unusual occurrence took place earlier this week when 3.4 million cars were recalled, this time for defective airbags. What was unusual is that it covered three of the biggies in the auto industry.
Toyota, Honda, and Nissan all issued recalls on the defective part, which is part of the passenger front airbag system. In a CNNpieceon the subject, Honda was quoted as saying, "It is possible that the passenger front airbag inflators in affected vehicles may deploy with too much pressure, which may cause the inflator casing to rupture and could result in injury." In other words, the airbag could burst instead of staying inflated, putting a passenger in a compromising position in terms of an accident.
For those folks owning cars from these three auto builders, the years affected appear to be 2001 through 2003. Luckily, there has not been widespread instances of injury due to this defect. Honda says it has been notified of one incident while Toyota has been made aware of five problems of this nature. At this point, no injuries had been reported when the problem did occur.
The defective airbag was manufactured by a Japanese company called Takata Corp, which saw its stock price plummet after news of the problem broke. For folks in the United States wondering if they are affected, the CNNarticlelisted the following models as being affected. " In the United States, the Honda vehicles involved in the recall include 2001 to 2003 Civics and CR-Vs and 2002 Odyssey minivans. Nissan is recalling 2001 to 2003 Maximas, Pathfinders, Sentras, Infiniti I35s and Infiniti QX4s in the U.S. while Mazda is recalling 147 2003 and 2004 Mazda6 sedans and two 2004 Mazda RX-8s. Toyota is recalling some 2001 to 2003 Corollas, Matrixes, Tundra pickups and Lexus CS430s. Toyota is also recalling the Camry, among other models, but in markets outside the U.S."
All of the various companies involved will be contacting car owners to give them details on how they can get the repair made and when to do so.
