The U.S. government is urging owners of 313,000 older Hondas and Acuras to stop driving them and get them repaired after new tests found that their Takata air bag inflators are extremely dangerous.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Thursday that it has data showing that chances are as high as 50 percent that the inflators can explode in a crash, injuring people by sending metal shrapnel into the passenger compartments.
“These vehicles are unsafe and need to be repaired immediately,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. “Folks should not drive these vehicles unless they are going straight to a dealer to have them repaired.”
Takata inflators can explode with too much force, blowing apart a metal canister and spewing metal fragments. At least 11 people have died and more than 100 have been injured worldwide from the problem. Authorities in Malaysia are investigating three more deaths that may be linked to the inflators.
The agency’s urgent advisory covers 2001 and 2002 Honda Civics and Accords, the 2002 and 2003 Acura TL, the 2002 Honda Odyssey and CR-V, and the 2003 Acura CL and Honda Pilot, NHTSA said.
All the vehicles were recalled between 2008 and 2011, and about 70 percent of them already have been repaired, the agency said.
Honda has ample replacement parts available from companies other than Takata to immediately fix the cars, the automaker said in a statement. The company said it has reached out to the owners multiple times, but many vehicles remain unrepaired even in high-humidity areas along the U.S. Gulf Coast that are at the highest risk.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
All you news people are just getting to this? I’ve heard about it for years!
All these warnings coming from the bureaucracy are simply fine and dandy,except for the following. Let’s say I’m Joe Ordinary Workingman, lower middle class perhaps. I have an older Honda, purchased new, my only car, which I need to get to work and so on. It now appears that the government is telling me not to drive the thing until it gets fixed. Of course, the Honda dealer, the mob that would do the work, hasn’t got the parts needed, and doesn’t know when, if ever, they will have them. So, at the risk of coming off seeming unsympathetic toward the problems of multi billion dollar international corporations Honda and Takata to mention just two, what am I supposed to do? No doubt, Mr. Foxx has a “company car”, likely with a driver too, so he is fine. What of the rest of us, assuming that the rest of us matter or figure in the equation?
I had a recall for an air bag problem on a 205 ford ranger pickup The letter stated the problem and said I would get a follow up letter when the part would be available. That was six months ago. I checked with the Ford dealer and I still haven’t heard a word.
I guess if it took 11 years to discover the problem.it will take about as long to fix it.
Why cant we get these bags disconnected.
My drivers manuel states that i can discconnect for a car seat. Are they
More dangerous connected or disconnected.
The Free replacement bag is a wonderful deal. However, the reason the owners are driving an older automobile is because hey can’t afford a new one, and the maintenance on the older cars is already dipping into the owner’s purse. What dealership wants to pay their work force to install a new free air-bag in an old car? Tampering with an airbag without proper equipment and training, can be lethal in itself. I will never allow one of my people to touch one of those things until they can show me some sort of certificate which verifies their training and experience. An airbag striking the mechanic or an improperly installed bag striking a driver at a speed of over 200 mph could kill either one. It is unfair for the manufacturer to place this additional burden on the owner, who bought the vehicle in good faith, not realizing he would be looking down the barrel of a loaded gun.