US national highway agency issues advisory over faulty air bag replacements in used cars

The Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration is warning drivers about “low cost, substandard substitute air bag inflators” in used automobiles that may fail to stop severe accidents or loss of life in a automobile wreck.

The company stated Wednesday that three folks have been killed and two suffered extreme accidents previously 9 months as a result of substandard, aftermarket air bag inflators.

“If customers personal or are contemplating the acquisition of a used automobile, NHTSA urges them to study their automobile’s historical past and guarantee their automobile has real air bag inflators,” the company stated.

In every of the 5 circumstances wherein somebody was killed or injured, the automobile had beforehand been concerned in a crash and the unique airbags had been changed. Malfunctioning airbag inflators despatched “giant steel fragments into drivers’ chests, necks, eyes and faces, killing or severely injuring drivers in in any other case survivable crashes,” in keeping with NHTSA.

Different low cost inflators could deploy too slowly, or partially, that means occupants of a automobile could strike the dashboard or steering wheel in a collision.

Anybody within the hunt for a used automobile ought to safe a automobile historical past report, or achieve this now if they didn’t earlier than shopping for a automobile, the NHTSA stated Wednesday.

Whether it is decided by a automotive dealership or a professional mechanic {that a} automobile has a defective air bag inflator, the NHTSA advises changing them and notifying a neighborhood Homeland Safety Investigations workplace, or FBI discipline workplace.