33M US drivers don’t know if they’re at risk from potentially deadly airbag blast

TOM KRISHER Associated Press

DETROIT — More than 33 million people in the United States are driving vehicles that contain a potentially deadly threat: Airbag inflators that in rare cases can explode in a collision and spew shrapnel.

Few of them know it. Because of a dispute between federal safety regulators and an airbag parts manufacturer, they aren’t likely to find out soon.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration demanded the manufacturer, ARC Automotive of Knoxville, Tennessee, recall 67 million inflators that could explode with such force as to blow apart a metal canister and expel shrapnel. ARC refused to do so, setting up a possible court fight with the agency.

<p>The ARC Automotive manufacturing plant is seen July 14, 2015, in Knoxville, Tenn.</p>

Adam Lau, Knoxville News Sentinel

The ARC Automotive manufacturing plant is seen July 14, 2015, in Knoxville, Tenn.

NHTSA argued that the recall is justified because two people were killed in the United States and Canada and at least seven others were injured by ARC’s inflators. The explosions, which first occurred in 2009, continued as recently as this year.

NHTSA tentatively concluded, after an investigation that lasted eight years, that the inflators are defective. The agency’s documents show that the inflators date from at least the 2002 model year to January 2018, when ARC installed equipment on its manufacturing lines that could detect potential safety problems.

One of those who died was Marlene Beaudoin, a 40-year-old mother of 10 from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula who was struck by metal fragments when her 2015 Chevrolet Traverse SUV was involved in a minor crash in 2021. She and four of her sons were on their way to get ice cream. The sons were not hurt.

ARC maintains that no safety defect exists, that NHTSA’s demand is based on a hypothesis rather than technical conclusions and that the agency has no authority to order a parts manufacturer to carry out recalls, which ARC contends are the responsibility of automakers.

In a letter to NHTSA, ARC said no automaker has found a defect common to all 67 million inflators, and no root cause has been identified in the inflator ruptures.

“ARC believes they resulted from random ‘one-off’ manufacturing anomalies that were properly addressed by vehicle manufacturers through lot-specific recalls,” the letter said.

In a statement, NHTSA indicated that both ARC and automakers are responsible for recalls and that it can seek a recall from a parts maker that supplies multiple automakers.

The next step is for NHTSA to issue a final ruling on whether the inflators are defective, then hold a public hearing. It potentially could take ARC to court to seek a recall order. NHTSA would not say when or whether any of this will happen.

In the meantime, owners of vehicles made by at least a dozen automakers — Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Ford, Toyota, Stellantis, Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Porsche, Hyundai and Kia — are left to wonder anxiously whether their vehicles contain driver or front passenger inflators made by ARC. Some vehicles have ARC inflators on both sides.

Because ARC supplies inflators that are included in other manufacturers’ airbags, there’s no easy way for vehicle owners to determine whether their inflators are made by ARC. Neither NHTSA nor ARC nor the automakers released a full list of affected models.

The standoff with ARC sent automakers struggling to find out just how many of their vehicles contain the inflators. The auto manufacturers are also asking NHTSA whether they must start doing recalls. Automakers know many of the models affected.

“We are still investigating,” said Maria Buczkowski, a spokeswoman for Ford. “We have not had any ARC airbag inflators rupture in the field.”

James Bell, a Kia spokesman, said, “We do not have a final count on vehicles that were built with ARC inflators, but the team is collecting the data.”

Toyota confirmed that some of its vehicles have ARC inflators but wouldn’t comment further.

Other automakers said they were trying to find a cause and were working with the government or didn’t respond to requests from The Associated Press for information.

NHTSA contends that byproducts from welding during manufacturing can clog a vent inside the inflator canister that’s designed to let gas escape to fill air bags quickly in a crash. Pressure can build to the point where the canister is blown apart.

Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, called on NHTSA and the automakers to release a list of affected models.

“Customers, I think, have a right to know if there’s a potential defect in their car, particularly if it’s sitting a few inches from their chest and can explode,” Brooks said.

The situation, he said, is reminiscent of the early stages of the Takata air bag inflator recalls in 2001. It took years for all the affected vehicle models to be announced.

Both ARC and Takata used ammonium nitrate to inflate air bags. Takata’s situation was more dangerous, Brooks said, because in its inflators, the chemical could deteriorate over time when exposed to high heat and humidity.

Unlike Takata, ARC uses ammonium nitrate only as a secondary chemical to inflate air bags. ARC’s problem appears to derive instead from a manufacturing defect.

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