Back on August 24, 2016 we interrupted our usual coverage of classic cars and roadside attractions to make a public service announcement about an ever-growing recall of cars equipped (or afflicted, as it turned out) with airbags from the Takata Corporation which, owing to ammonium nitrate propellant in the inflator mechanism, could explode in light impacts or even in sudden stops, spraying driver and passengers with sharp metal fragments and causing serious injury or death. We listed the makes of car affected by the recall, and referred readers to a website listing model names and years affected*. As of that date, 13 people had died as a result of Takata's defective airbags. Since then, the death toll has risen to over 2 dozen people worldwide, with 18 fatalities in the United States and some 240 reported injuries. The Takata Corp. has been bankrupted by claims against it, and no automotive airbags use ammonium nitrate today. But recalled vehicles with replacement airbags are safe, right? Well, stunningly, it didn't turn out that way...
When I posted the first review of the recall I was waiting for a replacement passenger-side airbag for a Subaru. I waited until November 25, 2016, when my local Subaru dealer replaced it with a safe unit...at least, that was what I'd thought. Any illusion of safety was effectively demolished earlier this month when I received another recall notice from Subaru of America, Inc. Their letter indicated that owing to shortages of "final remedy parts", the defective Takata airbag in my car had been replaced with a "like-for-like" airbag. Translation: It had been replaced with another Takata product with the ammonium nitrate propellant.
The dry legal parlance of the letter is interrupted after 3 paragraphs with an announcement in bold-face italics: "If the air bag inflator explodes, sharp metal fragments could strike vehicle occupants, potentially resulting in serious injury or death."
Some background is in order here: I'd waited 4 months while a safe bag could be sourced for my car. While waiting, I'd asked the dealer whether they could simply remove the defective passenger-side bag without replacing it...after all, an empty space above the glovebox would seem a safer bet than a fragmentation grenade waiting to go off. The dealer's answer was an unequivocal no. The local Suburu / Honda privateer mechanics also said they were not allowed to remove the bag. So I waited for the call from the Subaru dealer, and in late November of 2016 I took the car in to get a replacement (safe, right?) bag installed. And between November 25, 2016 and Tuesday of this week, I've been driving around thinking my passengers (family members, friends, loyal dog of the kind often featured in Subaru commercials) were immune to the Takata menace. I had no idea this thing was lurking in my car until Subaru North America got around to letting me know...and that took them 3 years and 2 months. It's fairly hard to believe that Subaru took 38 months to source a safe replacement, or to find the owner...after all, I'm the original owner of the car, and they found me the first time around. How likely was an explosion? The data is not comforting. After defective Takata bags were removed from recalled cars, 650 exploded in professionally-supervised tests (see photo above). In spring 2018, a driver-side airbag in a rented Honda Civic exploded in a low-speed collision in California, killing its unsuspecting driver, a 26 year-old grad student. Test reports in trade journals indicate that Takata's "Alpha" airbags, the kind installed in the steering wheel as on that ill-fated Honda Civic, are even more likely to explode than the passenger bags, with a 50% likelihood of uncontrolled detonation in low-speed impacts. Manufacturers claim to have trouble tracing a car's ownership once the original owner sells, and the rental Civic case makes it apparent that not all rental agencies or used-car dealers stay on top of recall issues. Readers who are uncertain about the recall status of a pre-owned vehicle should see if it's on the Takata recall list maintained by the NHTSA*, and contact a dealer for service if there is an outstanding recall notice on the vehicle. After all, human lives cannot be replaced on a "like-for-like" basis...
*Footnote: "Passive-Aggressive Safety" appeared on 8-24-16 and "Part 2: Do Air Bags Really Work?" is in the archives for 9-1-16. The website which will help you find if you car is affected by the recall is still operated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. They post updates on the recall and vehicles affected by it, at:
www.nhtsa.gov>equipment>takata-recall-spotlight
Photo credits:
Top: thedetroitbureau.com
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