Airbag Manufacturer Defies U.S. Demand To Expand Recall

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The maker of a defective air bag is defying a demand by the U.S. government to expand a recall.

The Takata Corporation manufactures the air bag which has led to the deaths of at least five people, and dozens of injuries worldwide.

The air bag inflator can explode, sending metal shrapnel flying into the passenger compartment.

Wednesday at a congressional hearing, an executive with Takata refused to comply with a request by the federal government to expand the recall nationally.

Over the summer Takata, which is based in Japan, issued a regional recall here in the U.S., saying states that are prone to high humidity are the only ones with vehicles at risk.

Those defective air bags are in cars, trucks and minivans made by 10 different automakers.

We now know a crash in the Twin Cities last year seriously injured a woman after metal parts from a Takata air bag flew into her face

Shashi Chopra is now blind.

The BMW that she and her husband had a crash in near their North Oaks home is one of the vehicles with a defective airbag.

The family wants to see a nationwide recall.

Vikas Chopra is the victim's son.

"I know that is really important to my mom, to  make sure that the word gets out that your car may not be safe for you to be in and drive in. She wants people to have awareness so they don't have to suffer what she's gone through," he said.

At a U.S. House hearing this morning, a Takata executive said there is no evidence to support a nationwide recall and the government does not have the authority to tell a parts maker to issue a recall.

Hiroshi Shimizu spoke on behalf of Takata.

"Takata continues to believe that public safety is best served if areas of high absolute humidity remain the priority," he said.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration said Takata's defiance was "disappointing" and that it's reviewing what it has the power to do.

Honda has the largest number of affected vehicles and announced Wednesday it's taking the matter into its own hands.

Rich Schostek spoke on behalf of Honda North America at the hearing.

"We want to inform you that Honda is going to expand our existing regional safety improvement campaign on affected driver airbag inflaters to a national campaign," he said.

The dispute has left automakers in the middle, vehicle owners confused and victims frustrated.

"Vehicles that have a Takata airbag, they need to be doing more to make sure what happened to my mom, and what happened to people all over the country, doesn't happen again," Chopra said.

This could all end up in court, or with Takata getting hit with a huge fine.

The NHTSA can impose fines of up to $35 million.

Right now it's up to individual automakers to decide what actions they want to take.

So far Takata has addressed the problem by recalling about 14 million vehicles, but by expanding it to a national level, eight million more vehicles would be added.

Best thing to do is call your dealership to find out if your car, truck or minivan is on the list of those with this particular type of airbag.

It's primarily those made between 2000 and 2008.

For more information on the vehicles with the airbags, click here.