WASHINGTON/DETROIT: Japanese air bag manufacturer Takata Corp is doubling a recall of potentially deadly air bags to nearly 34 million vehicles, creating the largest automotive recall in American history, US safety regulators said yesterday.
The recall involves passenger and driver-side air bag inflators in vehicles made by 11 automakers, the US Department of Transportation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Takata said. It expands on the 16.6 million vehicles called back for repairs for the same issue in previous regional and national recalls, and boosts the number of vehicles affected globally since 2008 to more than 53 million.
Regulators yesterday linked six deaths worldwide to defective Takata air bags which exploded with too much force and sent shrapnel into the vehicles.
It was only under pressure from US regulators that Takata agreed to the expanded recall. It had previously resisted expanding the recalls, saying the defect cited by automakers was not “officially recognised.”REUTERS
