Deadly, defective airbag inflators allegedly affect more than 33M Americans

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Defective airbag inflators overview: 

• Who: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is locked in a dispute with ARC Automotive over the agency’s demand for a recall of 67 million of its airbag inflators. 
• Why: The NHTSA argues the ARC airbag inflators are defective and can explode during deployment. ARC claims there is no evidence of a defect and that the NHTSA has no authority to demand it conduct a recall. 
• Where: The allegedly defective airbags affect drivers nationwide. 
• What are my options: CarShield provides vehicle service protection plans.

More than 33 million Americans drive vehicles potentially containing defective airbag inflators that can explode and eject shrapnel during an accident, according to federal safety regulators. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) demanded ARC Automotive, the manufacturer of the allegedly defective airbag inflators, issue a recall; however, ARC says no safety defect exists, The Associated Press reports. 

ARC reportedly claims the NHTSA wants it to initiate a recall for what would be 67 million inflators due on the basis of hypothesis rather than technical conclusions. 

Further, ARC argues the NHTSA does not have the authority to order a parts maker to carry out a recall, contending that initiating a recall is the automakers’ responsibility, the AP reports. 

Meanwhile, the NHTSA reportedly argues a recall is justified since two people have been killed in the United States and Canada, in addition to at least seven other reports of injuries, as a result of exploding airbag inflators ARC produced. 

ARC airbag inflator explosions were first reported in 2009 and have occurred as recently as this year, the AP reports. 

NHTSA conducted investigation into defective airbag inflators before ‘tentatively concluding’ defect

The NHTSA reportedly conducted an eight-year investigation into the ARC airbag inflators, after which it tentatively concluded inflators manufactured between at least model year 2002 and January 2018 are defective. 

In a letter to the NHTSA, ARC disputes its inflators are defective, writing that no auto manufacturer had found a defect common to all 67 million of the deflators in question and that no root cause had been identified, the AP reports. 

“ARC believes they resulted from random ‘one-off’ manufacturing anomalies that were properly addressed by vehicle manufacturers through lot-specific recalls,” the company writes. 

The NHTSA, meanwhile, issued a statement indicating both ARC and automakers are responsible for conducting recalls and stating it has the authority to seek recalls from parts makers that supply multiple automakers, the AP reports. 

In related news, earlier this month, GM recalled more than 990,000 of its vehicles over concerns they were equipped with ARC airbag inflators that could explode during deployment. 

And last May, a group of drivers filed a class action lawsuit against GM, Volkswagen, Ford and ARC, arguing they knowingly sold vehicles containing allegedly defective ARC airbag inflators. 

Are you concerned your vehicle may be equipped with a defective ARC airbag inflator? Let us know in the comments.

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

• GM announces recall for 1M vehicles as part of air bag recall
• $200M Hyundai, Kia settlement resolves theft suits
• Recall announced for model year 2014-2016 Jeep Cherokee vehicles due to fire risk
• Honda class action claims electric power steering systems have ‘stick’ defect