Time is up! The government is tired of waiting on answers from Takata Corporation, and so the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has once again expanded the recall of the defective airbags that have left 11 people dead and have maimed hundreds more worldwide.
Is This The Takata Recall’s Final Expansion?
The government was originally giving Takata until 2019 the prove that inflators fitted with ammonium nitrate propellant could be safe in particular airbag inflator models, but time and scientific study has turned the tables.
In the past few months it was scientifically confirmed that the propellant used in Takata’s airbag inflators becomes too volatile when exposed to heat and humidity, and then tragedy struck again.
In Texas, a teenage girl died when the airbag in her Honda went off. Investigators linked her death to the unrecalled inflator in her car, and that may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
How Long Does Takata Have To Replace Defective Inflators?
The NHTSA has notified Takata that 35-40 million more vehicles need to be recalled. This raises the recall to a whopping 68.8 million vehicles nationwide—that’s 1 in every 4 cars in America—and the government also wants the manufacturer to accelerate its recalls. Defective Takata airbag inflators have become a life or death issue, and the manufacturer has until December 2019 to replace all of the remaining defective inflators. Experts estimate that it could take up to $24 billion to get the job done.
Do you think Takata will be able to replace all the defective airbag inflators? Do you think the company will survive this recall nuclear option? Is your car affected by the new recall? Answers are soon to come, so keep following our blog to stay in the loop.
A message from the defective automotive parts attorneys at Colson Hicks Eidson.
