US auto safety regulators have backed away from seeking a recall of nearly 50 million air bag inflators and will investigate further after the auto industry raised questions about whether all the inflators were defective.
The move by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Wednesday differs significantly from a decision the agency reiterated in January that blowers made by ARC Automotive Inc. in Tennessee is defective and dangerous and should be recalled.
The agency said blowers in about 49 million cars from 13 manufacturers are at risk of exploding and dropping shrapnel on drivers and passengers. They are responsible for at least seven infections and two deaths in the United States and Canada since 2009.
But in a document published Wednesday in the Federal Register dated Dec. 13, the agency said it considered comments on the January decision seeking the recall. The auto industry has pointed out technical and engineering differences between ARC inflators in vehicles made by different manufacturers. Comments also raised differences in the manufacturing process at different plants that made the ARC blower.
“Given the potential relevance of these issues to the agency’s decision-making process, including the appropriate scope of any recall, further investigation is warranted,” the agency said in the document.
Get daily national news
Get the day’s top political, economic and current affairs news, headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
A message was left on Wednesday seeking comment from ARC, which is owned by Chinese conglomerate Yinyi.
NHTSA said Wednesday that it carefully considered comments on its decision to seek a recall of all blowers and determined that further investigation was warranted.
In the coming weeks, the agency said it will send letters requesting more information to ARC, vehicle manufacturers and air bag module manufacturers.
In a supplemental ruling issued in January, NHTSA said seven of the inflators exploded in the field in the United States, each showing evidence of inadequate welds or excessive pressure in a canister designed to contain the explosion and fill air bags in the event of a crash.
In addition, the agency said 23 blowers ruptured during testing for reasons common to blowers that exploded in the field. The agency also said four inflatables exploded outside the United States, killing at least one person.
“The vast majority of objective inflatables will certainly not rupture when deployed,” the NHSTA wrote in January. “However, based on evidence linking previous ruptures to the same friction welding process, all placed bellows are at risk of rupture.”
But several automakers argued in public comments that years of investigations by NHTSA had not proven a systemic design flaw. Some said that none of the millions of inflatable devices in their cars exploded due to the reason indicated by the agency.
The only way to know which of the ARC-designed inflators will explode is to have them deployed in the event of an accident, NHTSA said. The agency said the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Act “does not allow such a defect to be left unaddressed.”
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
