Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, is warning owners of 276,000 older vehicles to stop driving them after the Takata airbag appeared to explode, killing three more people.
Paul Sancya / AP
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Paul Sancya / AP
Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, is warning owners of 276,000 older vehicles to stop driving them after the Takata airbag appeared to explode, killing three more people.
Paul Sancya / AP
DETROIT – Stellantis and the US government are warning owners of 276,000 older vehicles to stop driving them after Takata airbags appeared to explode in three other vehicles, killing the driver.
The company, formerly Fiat Chrysler, is asking people to stop driving the Dodge Magnum wagons, Dodge Challenger and Charger muscle cars and Chrysler 300 sedans between 2005 and 2010.
Stellantis said it has confirmed the driver’s airbag inflated in two cases, killing two drivers. The company suspects an inflatable tube rupture in another case also killed a driver. All three deaths were in warm-weather U.S. states and occurred in the past seven months in 2010 vehicles, the company said.
The death toll from the Takata airbag explosion rose to at least 32 people worldwide, including 23 in the US.
Takata used ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion to inflate the airbag in an accident. But chemicals can become more volatile over time with repeated exposure to moisture in the air and high temperatures. The explosion could explode a metal box and throw shrapnel into the passenger compartment.
Most deaths and injuries related to faulty airbags occur in warmer states
Most of the deaths and about 400 injuries occurred in warmer US states.
Stellantis vehicles with “Do not drive” warnings were all recalled in 2015 and have been repaired free of charge since. Stellantis said it made repeated attempts to reach the owner but repairs were not made. The recall affects vehicles whose airbag inflators have not been replaced as part of the recall.
Ann Carlson, acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said in a statement: “Recalled Takata airbags that are not repaired are increasingly dangerous as the risk of explosion increases as vehicles get old.” “Every day that goes by when you don’t have your recalled airbag replaced puts you and your family at greater risk of injury or death.”
On Thursday, NHTSA urged all vehicle owners to check their vehicles for the unrepaired Takata airbag recall. Drivers can go to https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls and enter their 17-digit vehicle identification number to see if they have any open recalls.
The potential for dangerous incidents has led to the largest series of auto recalls in US history, with at least 67 million Takata pump sets being recalled. The US government says that millions are still unrepaired. About 100 million inflators have been recalled worldwide. Exploding airbags caused the bankruptcy of Japan’s Takata Corporation.
Most of the deaths are in the US, but they also occur in Australia and Malaysia.
