When an automobile’s airbag explodes, it achieves full inflation in milliseconds, and then almost immediately starts to deflate.
Automobile airbag recalls, on the other hand, seem to keep on exploding, month after month, and now year after year. At least that seems to be the case with the recalls of airbags with inflators made by the Takata Corporation. Now that Takata has acknowledged the defect, the defective airbag recall has grown to affect 34,000,000 vehicles in the U.S.
Initially, BMW had 140,696 vehicles affected by the recall that was issued in June 2014. As of May 28, 2015, that number has now grown to 420,661 as a more BMW models were added to the list of vehicles requiring replacement of the driver’s side front airbag.
The models that fall under the recall now include:
2002–2005 BMW 325i, 325xi, 330i, and 330xi Sedans
2002–2005 BMW 325xi and 325i Sports Wagons
2002–2006 BMW 330Ci, 325Ci, and M3 Convertibles
2002–2006 BMW 325i, 330i, and M3 Coupes
2002–2003 BMW M5, 540i, 525i, and 530i Sedans
2002–2003 BMW 540i and 525i Sports Wagons
2003–2004 BMW X5 3.0i and 4.4i Sport Activity Vehicles
Only those 5 Series and X5 vehicles equipped with the optional sports steering wheel are included in the recall.
Owners should receive notifications from BMW dealers for replacement of the front driver airbag module. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s web site, even vehicles that have had their driver front air bag replaced as part of a previous recall need to have their air bag replaced under this recall as well.
The Takata airbag inflator saga began in 2008 when Honda issued its first recall. In separate incidents in 2009, two Honda motorists were killed by airbag inflator shards. Honda settled with their families.
Honda expanded the recall in 2010, and again in 2011. By 2013, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda and BMW had joined Honda in the recall. That year, an Acura driver received fatal injuries from an airbag “foreign object.”
The NHTSA began investigating in 2014 as Takata continued to deny any defects. Also in 2014, BMW, Honda, Nissan, and Mazda expanded their recalls. Another Honda driver died in November of 2014 and in December, Honda reported the first related fatality outside the United States.
Another Honda driver died in January 2015. In May, Takata finally admitted that its airbag inflators in almost 34,000,000 vehicles were defective. Auto manufacturers added even more models to the list. The defective Takata airbag inflators have now triggered the largest recall for a safety defect in U.S. history.—Scott Blazey
[Photo courtesy of BMW AG.]
