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NHTSA Expands Takata Airbag Recalls After 10th Death Reported
The 10th fatality linked to an exploding Takata Corp. airbag inflator has prompted the U.S. to add 5 million more vehicles to the 19 million already being recalled to fix the defect.
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The 10th fatality linked to an exploding Takata Corp. airbag inflator has prompted the U.S. to add 5 million more vehicles to the 19 million already being recalled to fix the defect.
The 10th fatality occurred in South Carolina last month when a crash killed the driver of a 2006 Ford Ranger compact pickup truck. No details were immediately available. Takata inflators have been linked to eight other fatalities in the U.S., all involving inflators that exploded and sprayed metal shrapnel into the vehicle when triggered by a crash.
Why the inflators misfire is not yet clear. But all incidents to date have occurred in hot and humid climates.
The new recall covers vehicles made by Audi, BMW, Ford, Daimler, Honda, Mazda, Saab and Volkswagen. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did not announce the specific models covered. But its expanded list will be posted on the agency’s safercar.gov Web site.
NHTSA notes that some vehicles in the new recall may already be targeted by earlier campaigns, which cover 23 million driver- and/or passenger-side airbags by a dozen carmakers.
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