NHTSA Investigating Another Airbag Death, but This Time It Isn't Takata

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration expanded its investigation into airbags manufactured by ARC Automotive following the July 8 death of a Hyundai driver in Canada.

According to Reuters, an airbag inflator in the vehicle ruptured, fatally injuring the driver. The death is similar to those caused by faulty Takata airbags, and the investigation could add millions of vehicles to an already massive airbag recall list.

The investigation covers eight million airbag inflators used by General Motors, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Hyundai and Kia vehicles. The automakers used the airbags through 2004, but the NHTSA says newer vehicles could be affected.

Spokesman Bryan Thomas told Reuters that the NHTSA will “direct the collection and testing of inflators as part of its effort to determine the root cause of the rupture incidents.”

The vehicle involved in the fatal crash was a 2009 Hyundai Elantra — a Canadian model with an ARC airbag inflator assembled in China. Airbags in U.S.-bound ’09 Elantras didn’t use the Chinese-made ARC inflator.

After faulty Takata airbags led to 13 deaths, the NHTSA started looking into other airbag manufacturers. It opened an investigation into ARC last year after uncovering two reported injuries caused by ruptured airbag inflators. That probe covered 490,000 vehicles.

Takata inflators use ammonium nitrate as a propellant, while Tennessee-based ARC uses a small amount of the chemical, plus a pressurized gas. Speaking to the New York Times, a spokesman for Hyundai expressed condolences on behalf of the automaker and said the company would cooperate with American and Canadian regulators in their investigations.

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Lonborghini Lonborghini on Aug 05, 2016

    Will it ever occur to anyone that explosive devices inside our cars might be dangerous?

    • VoGo VoGo on Aug 05, 2016

      Nope. You're the first to figure that out. Tell the McArthur Foundation to send this guy a genius grant.

  • Old Man Pants Old Man Pants on Aug 05, 2016

    All those junk bin necklaces hanging from that mirror show for whom airbags are necessary. We are such total pricks to Darwin.

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    • Lorenzo Lorenzo on Aug 06, 2016

      @Lou_BC I can't imagine the women in my life being LESS fussy than they already are. More fussy is impossible, and none of them drink, except egg-nog at Christmas, as a break from pumpkin spice.

  • Cabriolet Cabriolet on Aug 05, 2016

    i remember about 38 years ago someone wrote an article about cars having air bags installed as original equipment. The point was brought up that when these cars are junked they will be time bombs waiting to go off. Back in those days kids would go to the junk yards and try to pull out radios and other dashboard parts to put into their own cars. (I remember doing this as a kid) It was mentioned in the article that some of these kids will be killed when the air bag goes off. Will now they go off driving down the road. I would restore certain cars during the winter months Miata's, Beetles and a few VW Cabriolet's. Used them during the summer for a few years as insurance was cheap and then sold them for a nice profit. Many of them had Airbags but butchers installing after market radios and gauges the wiring was a problem to clean up. I found the safest thing was to replace the steering wheel and remove the entire airbag system. I don't think i would want to drive a 20 year old car now knowing what i know now.

  • Andrew Andrew on Aug 06, 2016

    It's becoming very apparent to me that the entire airbag industry is riddled with upper level management corruption and manufacturing of what is supposed to be a life-saving device is being carelessly thrown to the lowest bidder with little or no oversight, often in countries with an unskilled and lackadaisical workforce being paid dollars per week. Why? There's no incentive to produce a quality product when you're one of only four companies in the WORLD that make that product, the consumer will never know the difference and governments all over will continue to require that your product be installed whether customers want them or not. Talk about getting to nail the goose that lays the golden egg for the rest of all time. No wonder the cretins that run companies like Takata and ARC couldn't care less about the people who are dying at the hands of their deliberately defective products because it will never come back on them and the check already cleared so...yeah. Job done! Now to wait and see what sort of calamity AutoLiv and TRW can come up with so they can level the playing field against ARC and the well-established dashboard claymore mine manufacturer, Takata. I am seriously considering having the airbags in my Elantra removed as a result of this. I'd much rather eat the steering wheel than bleed to death because some suited up corporate bigwig needs to buy a new Gulfstream.

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    • VoGo VoGo on Aug 06, 2016

      @JimZ True enough. But taking out your airbag because you distrust the rich is a little dramatic, no?

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