A type of Takata Corp air bag inflator once thought to be safe has come under scrutiny after a crash and explosion in Maryland injured the driver of a Honda Motor Co minivan.
The incident on Tuesday forced Honda to recall about 1.2 million vehicles in North and Central America from the 2001 to 2016 model years to replace inflators that had not been included in the massive string of Takata recalls for air bags that can hurl shrapnel into the passenger compartment.
Takata used ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion and inflate air bags in a collision.
However, the chemical can deteriorate when exposed to high temperatures and humidity and blow apart a metal canister, spewing out shrapnel. At least 23 people have been killed by the company’s inflators and hundreds more injured.
The inflators in the Tuesday recall contain a moisture-absorbing chemical called a desiccant that was added to keep the ammonium nitrate stable.
They were believed to be safe and were used to replace older inflators under recalls that began in 2014.
However, Honda and the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said that a crash on Jan. 19 last year involving a 2004 Honda Odyssey initiated an investigation and Tuesday’s recall when investigators discovered that the driver’s air bag inflator ruptured.
The probe determined that inflators made at Takata’s Monclova, Mexico, factory were faulty due to a manufacturing defect, Honda said.
The driver suffered an arm injury.
The NHTSA, the US government’s highway safety regulator, said that only Honda used this particular type of Takata inflator made at the Mexican factory.
At this time, the agency believes the Honda problem has been isolated and is caused by a manufacturing issue, it said.
The Honda vehicles would be recalled a second time to replace the inflators. Also included in the recall are vehicles that received inflators due to collision repairs.
The recall covers certain Honda and Acura models largely in the US and Canada.
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