NHTSA Narrows Plans for National Recall for Takata Airbags

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is pushing ahead with its demand that 10 carmakers expand their regional recalls of driver-side airbag inflators made by Takata Corp.

But the agency says it doesn't yet have enough evidence to justify a nationwide recall of the devices in passenger-side airbags.

David Friedman

NHTSA Deputy Administrator David Friedman notes the complexity of the Takata recalls in a statement prepared for Wednesday's hearing of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade. He explains that the agency is overseeing three categories of Takata recalls:

1. Nationwide recalls to replace inflators flawed by manufacturing defects

2. Regional recalls in high-humidity areas to replace passenger-side inflators that are sensitive to moisture

3. NHTSA's new demand that carmakers recall driver-side inflators in all 50 states

Takata opposes expanding the second group of campaigns or launching the third recall at all without more evidence that either is necessary.

In a prepared statement for the hearing, Takata's quality chief says recent tests of thousands of inflators culled from scrapped vehicles have uncovered failures of passenger-side airbag inflators in high-humidity areas. But he says the tests revealed no failures for passenger-side inflators from other parts of in the country, and no failures of driver-side inflators from anywhere in the U.S.

Separately, Takata Chairman Shigehisa Takada announced today the company will form an independent quality assurance panel to audit its inflator manufacturing operations. The group will be chaired by former U.S. Dept. of Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner.