The Japanese major car manufacturer “Toyota” has recalled about 1.4 million vehicles worldwide of its own production due to some problems with the exploding air bags.
Toyota announced that this recall has nothing to do with Takata airbag, but for other issues.
The company mentioned also that there has been no deaths or injuries caused by the problem. It also mentioned that the main cause of the problem is totally apart from Takata problem.
Side airbags
The reason of the recall this time is the airbags on the side of the car, not the one in the steering wheel or the passenger-side dashboard.
It was found that the side airbags can suddenly inflate shooting some pieces of the inflator into the car, which could result in serious damages.
The side airbags contain inflators of two chambers welded together. When the car is parked for a long period of time, the weld could crack causing a separation between the two chambers, which results in inflating the airbag.
Three hybrid models produced by Toyota’s production lines between October 2008 and April 2012 were included in this recall which are: Prius, Prius Plug-in, and Lexus CT200h. It’s worth mentioning that 500,000 of the 1.4 million recalled cars are located in the US.
Takata airbag
As announced, this recall has nothing to do with Takata airbags which were the cause of the largest auto recall in history.
The problem goes back to installed airbags produced and supplied by Takata Corporation, which is an automotive parts company located in Japan. The company has production facilities scattered around 4 continents and its European HQ is located in Germany.
In April 2013, Takata announced the recognition of an industrial fault in its airbags that could cause serious injuries for drivers and car passengers.
The problem is about the defective inflators installed in the airbags. The inflators could cause the explosion or rupture of the airbag, shooting a lot of shrapnel into the driver’s or front-seat passenger’s body.
Problem implications
Until the moment, 22 international automakers were found involved in the problem which made them recall many of their recently-produced vehicles.
About 20 percent of the 260 million vehicles roaming the US roads are believed to have the defective airbags.
The problem is believed to cause the largest auto-recall in history which will take many years to come. United States alone has 69 million Takata airbags that have been recalled, or will be recalled until 2019.
About 10 deaths in US were linked to the faulty explosion of Takata airbags, in addition to many other serious injuries.
In 2015, a 2007 Honda Civic driver was killed in India due to flying shrapnel into the cabin. Another death, which took place Los Angeles, was announced to be caused by a defective airbag from Takata.
Since recognizing the problem in 2013, many car brands were involved in installing Takata’s defective airbags including Fiat Chrysler, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Ferrari, Daimler, Ford, and many other.
The Takata case refers to a number of serious problems, not only to the industrialization of Takata’s automotive parts, but also to the integrity of many companies’ and governmental bodies’ executives.
