US regulators took a major step Tuesday toward forcing a recall of as many as 52 million air bag inflators they have said could explode in a crash, an escalation of a safety issue that has plagued the auto industry for years.
(Bloomberg) — US regulators took a major step Tuesday toward forcing a recall of as many as 52 million air bag inflators they have said could explode in a crash, an escalation of a safety issue that has plagued the auto industry for years.
After part maker Knoxville, Tennessee-based ARC Automotive Inc. refused to issue a widespread recall on its own after regulators recommended they do so, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued an “initial decision” Tuesday that the parts are defective. This first step could lead to the company being forced to recall the parts. The agency, which lowered its original projection of the number of impacted parts from 67 million to 52 million, set a public hearing for Oct. 5 on the finding.
NHTSA said in May it had identified at least nine cases of ruptured air bag inflators that led to injuries, including two deaths, dating from 2009 to as recently as this past March.
Read More: US Urges Recall of 67 Million Air Bag Parts in Safety Mess
The air bags are used by at least a dozen car manufacturers, including General Motors Co., Stellantis NV, Volkswagen AG and Hyundai Motor Co. GM recalled in May almost 1 million vehicles from 2014 to 2017 that are equipped with ARC inflators.
The situation echoes the sprawling recall of more than 100 million defective air bag inflators made by the now-defunct Takata Corp., which was the biggest auto recall in US history. While the ARC problem appears to be unrelated, the prospect of recalling tens of millions of vehicles to get repairs would be a significant burden on the industry and car owners.
ARC has said it’s premature to begin a large-scale withdrawal. A spokeswoman who has worked with the parts maker on the issues with NHTSA did not immediately respond to a request or comment.
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