US agency calls for recall of 52 million airbags

The US traffic safety authority, NHTSA, has called for a recall of 52 million air bag components from auto suppliers ARC Automotive and Delphi Automotive. The authority said yesterday that the bellows may explode and scatter metal fragments. In inflators, after the ignition of a solid, the gas by which the airbag cushions are inflated is produced in fractions of a second.

NHTSA first requested the subpoena in May, but the ARC denied it. The commission has now decided that the case will be heard in a public session on October 5. The airbags criticized by the NHTSA were installed by twelve auto manufacturers from 2000 to early 2018. Those affected include General Motors, Ford, Stelantis, Tesla, Toyota and Volkswagen.

General Motors in May agreed to recall nearly 1 million vehicles with ARC blowers after a rupture in March left a driver with facial injuries. Delphi Automotive, which was acquired by Autoliv, has manufactured approximately 11 million of these airbags under a licensing agreement with ARC. The remaining 41 million airbags were produced by ARC itself.