Emerging Safety Crisis in the Used Car Market
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a warning after faulty replacement airbag inflators have been confirmed to be behind multiple deaths in car crashes that were deemed ‘otherwise survivable’ by investigators. The inflators in question, not manufactured or approved for use by carmakers, appear to have been installed as replacement parts after an airbag deployment during a prior crash. The NHTSA says that these inflators were never approved for sale in the U.S. and were likely imported illegally. What’s scarier is that the agency believes that as many as 10,000 of these faulty inflators may still be in circulation, fitted to cars as replacement parts after prior crashes.
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Deadly Failures
Investigations into 10 crashes so far have revealed that the replacement airbag components ruptured catastrophically during collisions, sending metal shrapnel into the passenger compartment with deadly force. Eight of these crashes, deemed ‘otherwise survivable’ by the NHTSA resulted in fatalities, while the other two drivers received life-altering injuries. The cars involved were used Chevy Malibu and Hyundai Sonata sedans that had been repaired with these faulty parts after previous accidents.
The deadly inflators were manufactured by Jilin Province Detiannuo Automobile Safety System Company, a Chinese company commonly referred to as DTN. The questionable parts seem to have been fitted to several cars currently in the used market, particularly vehicles with salvaged or rebuilt titles.
Chevy Malibu in the Spotlight
The majority of these deadly incidents involve older, used examples of the popular Chevrolet Malibu sedan, where the original airbag had been replaced after a previous deployment. While GM did not supply or authorize these replacement parts, the NHTSA is urging used Malibu buyers to have vehicles with a history of airbag deployment inspected to ensure the use of legitimate replacement components. The Agency has also issued an alert to auto repair businesses to remain vigilant when sourcing replacement airbag components.
Investigation Still Underway
Federal regulators are now working on tracing how the Chinese inflators entered the U.S. supply chain and where they may still be installed. Officials are coordinating with various law enforcement agencies and industry partners to identify distributors, remove the faulty components from circulation, and prevent further installations.
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