Report: Honda, Takata Secretly Modified Airbag Inflators

Honda Motor Co. asked Takata Corp. in 2009 to make its airbag inflators “fail-safe” from hurting vehicle occupants. But the companies violated U.S. law by not reporting the resulting alteration to safety authorities, Reuters reports.

A dozen carmakers have recalled roughly 50 million vehicles to replace Takata inflators that can explode and spray the passenger compartment with metal shrapnel. The flaw has been blamed on 10 fatalities and more than 130 injuries.

Honda’s request came after the first reported death blamed on an exploding Takata inflator. In late 2010 Takata added more vent holes to direct excessive pressure from an inflator misfire away from the driver or passenger.

Reuters say details about the modification appeared in Takata technical documents and internal reports between 2009 and 2011. A Honda spokesman tells Reuters the fix worked as intended, and no deaths or injuries have occurred with the modified devices.

Takata has acknowledged that manufacturing quality lapses are at least partly to blame for the misfires. Honda says it didn’t tell the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about the inflator alteration because it considered the update a solution to possible future manufacturing problems and not a fix for an inherent design flaw in the inflator itself.

But legal experts are skeptical. They tell Reuters that both companies face renewed legal scrutiny in the U.S. for failing to report the modification. The news service says U.S. law requires carmakers to tell NHTSA about safety risks and any actions they take to prevent them.