INDIANAPOLIS — Ten years after government regulators announced a massive, nationwide recall involving defective airbags, more than six million of the potentially deadly airbags are still on the road.
“As time passes, they are getting more and more risky, and that’s why it’s very critical they get fixed very quickly,” said National Highway Traffic Safety Administration chief of recall management Alex Ansley. “You shouldn’t even be operating one of these vehicles at this point if it still has a recalled Takata airbag.”
According to safety advocates and government regulators, the millions of defective airbags pose a safety threat to motorists that is equivalent to a “ticking timebomb.” For that reason, automakers are now taking drastic action in Indianapolis and around the nation to find and fix the recalled airbags before they lead to more serious injuries and deaths.
Largest recall in US history
NHTSA announced a nationwide recall involving more than 67 million defective airbags in 2014, claiming the Takata-made airbags contained a deadly defect.
The inflator module inside the airbags can explode with too much force, ripping apart the metal tube that surrounds each inflator and sending shards of shrapnel flying through the air. According to government records, such explosions are to blame for at least 27 deaths and more than 400 injuries, prompting what is still considered the largest and most complex recall in U.S. history.
So far, the NHTSA says automakers have replaced more than 45 million of the defective airbag inflators.
But a decade after the recall started, at least 6.4 million cars and trucks operating in the U.S. still contain at least one dangerous airbag, according to CARFAX, a company that collects vehicle data.
“These are cars that are still in operation, and that’s a big problem,” CARFAX editor-in-chief Patrick Olsen told 13News, adding that many of those vehicles are right here in Indiana.
“We know there’s 154,000 vehicles in Indiana - almost half that in the Indianapolis metro area - that still have unfixed recalls. Those are not small numbers,” he said. “Our fear is after ten years, people have stopped talking about it, and clearly there are still a lot of those cars that need to get off the road.”
CARFAX says Indiana is one of 14 states with at least 150,000 vehicles that contain unrepaired Takata airbags, and the risk posed by those vehicles is literally growing by the day.
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NHTSA says as the defective airbag inflators age and are exposed over time to more heat and humidity, the risk of failure grows. The government safety agency says older Takata airbag inflators have a 50% chance of rupturing during deployment, posing an incredibly high risk of injury or death to occupants inside a vehicle.
“Every one of them could be a threat,” said Michael Brooks, executive director at the Center for Auto Safety. “The longer these airbags are on the road, the higher the risk of inflator rupture even in a minor crash. These are repairs that either have to take place or we’re very, very likely to see injuries or deaths occur.”
Brooks said preventing more deaths caused by defective airbag inflators is a race against time for automakers.
That’s why they are now taking drastic action to get the remaining 6+ million recalled airbags off the road - one vehicle at a time.
Going door-to-door
Dustin Deupree is visiting hundreds of neighborhoods throughout central Indiana, looking for vehicles with recalled Takata airbags.
“Indy is just littered with them,” he told 13 Investigates, pointing to a computer screen showing the suspected locations of thousands of vehicles that need repairs. “Look at that! There’s thousands of these.”
Deupree is among 150 members of an Airbag Recall Safety Team assembled by Stellantis, the company that manufactures automotive brands like Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram. The Airbag Recall Safety Team is now spread out in cities across the nation, knocking on doors to find and fix Takata airbags that are part of the 2014 recall.
“We’re doing everything we can to get the message out, stress the urgency and get vehicles repaired,” said Matt Witherspoon, an Airbag Recall Safety Team regional manager. “It’s serious enough where I’m here at your door. I’ve been out here specifically for your vehicle to try to schedule you for a repair.”
Last week, 13 Investigates accompanied Deupree and Witherspoon to several homes on the east side of Indianapolis. At one home, where records showed there might be a recalled Dodge Charger, the owner shouted for them to get off his property after pointing to a no trespassing sign in the front window.
At another home, they found a 2003 Ram truck with deteriorating air bag inflators that should have been replaced ten years ago.
“I’m here from Dodge about the white Ram,” Deupree told the homeowner. “It’s got pending airbag recalls. They are potentially fatal if that gets in an accident.”
The Airbag Recall Safety Teams from Stellantis are not just warning customers; they are also offering to fix the airbags right in the customers’ own driveways. Eliminating the need for customers to take time off work to visit a dealership has been crucial in replacing airbags that have not yet been fixed.
“That’s just perfect. Can’t beat that with a stick,” said Shelly Tucker, whose son owns the 2003 Ram truck tracked down by Deupree. “That’s a great thing they’re doing. I appreciate it.”
Other customers are surprised by the house calls.
“It was shocking to me. To be honest, at first I couldn’t believe it,” said Johnny Brown, who was also contacted by the Airbag Recall Safety Team.
Brown owns a Chrysler 300 that was recently included in an airbag “Do Not Drive” order issued by the automaker. That order means the vehicle is considered too dangerous to drive until the airbag inflator is replaced.
RELATED: Stellantis recalls nearly 318,000 cars to replace side air bags that can explode and hurl shrapnel
Last week, Stellantis sent a repair team from Kalamazoo, Michigan to Brown’s workplace to replace the inflator while he worked. The inflator canister was covered in rust, an indication that it was impacted by moisture, heat and humidity and at an increased risk of a dangerous explosion.
“We are tenacious about going after these [Do Not Drive] cars,” Witherspoon said. “We don’t take no for an answer on these. We do everything we can to get them fixed.”
The repair took about 20 minutes.
“I just feel better knowing that it’s taken care of and my life will be safer,” Brown said, admitting that he had no idea that his car contained a dangerous airbag inflator before he was contacted by Stellantis. “I think everyone should be aware that they do this. It’s very convenient.”
“You don’t usually see that type of outreach for an automotive recall, and so that just tells you how important the Takata recalls are and how critical it is those vehicles get repaired,” said Ansley, the NHTSA chief recall manager.
How to check if your vehicle’s airbags are under recall
Other automakers are also going to great lengths to find and fix airbags, including sending hundreds of millions of letters, emails and texts and making millions of outreach phone calls to contact impacted customers. Some have offered gift cards as an incentive to get airbags fixed. Others have posted billboards and advertised their repair programs on television, radio and social media.
Some companies, like Honda, have also sent representatives door-to-door in an effort to locate and repair recalled Takata airbags, and the automaker is also offering free loaner vehicles to customers so they have alternate transportation on the day of the repair.
All of the automakers are offering the airbag repairs at no cost to customers.
And unlike the early days of the recall, when replacement inflators were back ordered and customers had to wait months for a repair, the automakers say they now have an ample supply of parts to make airbag repairs quickly.
The Center for Auto Safety says the more aggressive tactics seem to be paying off and are now necessary based on the high risk posed by millions of unrepaired airbags.
“It’s super dangerous. The companies recognize this, the government recognizes this, and so they’re taking out all the stops,” said Brooks, the CAS executive director. “They’re doing everything they can to make sure there aren’t any hand grenades sitting in front of these passengers as these vehicles age.”
If you have an older vehicle and are unsure if it might contain a defective Takata airbag, you can visit the NHTSA website or CARFAX website that allow you to search for recalls on your vehicle.
The search tools allow you to check for recalls based on your license plate number or the vehicle identification number (VIN) of your vehicle.
For more information about the airbag recall, you can check NHTSA’s Takata recall website.