U.S. Warns Honda and Acura Owners to Replace Airbags

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By Hiroko Tabuchi

In an urgent plea to car owners, federal safety regulators on Thursday warned that airbags in more than 300,000 older Honda and Acura vehicles were at an unacceptably high risk of exploding, and needed to be replaced immediately.

Laboratory tests underway on airbags collected from recalled vehicles indicate that Takata airbags in certain 2001-3 Honda and Acura vehicles had “as high as a 50 percent chance of a dangerous airbag inflater rupture in a crash,” the transportation secretary, Anthony Foxx, said in a bulletin.

“These vehicles are unsafe and need to be repaired immediately,” Mr. Foxx said. “Folks should not drive these vehicles unless they are going straight to a dealer to have them repaired immediately, free of charge.”

The at-risk vehicles are:

■ 2001-2002 Honda Civic■ 2001-2002 Honda Accord■ 2002-2003 Acura TL■ 2002 Honda CR-V■ 2002 Honda Odyssey■ 2003 Acura CL■ 2003 Honda Pilot

The bulletin adds new urgency to the effort to recall and replace defective Takata airbags, which have been linked to at least 14 deaths and more than 100 injuries. Problems with the propellant that inflates the airbag can cause a metal part to rupture when the bag is deployed in a crash, shooting metal fragments toward the car’s driver or passengers.

In one recent accident, a Texas teenager was killed when a fragment shot out of her airbag in a crash and severed an artery in her neck. She was driving a 2002 Honda Civic.

The defect has prompted 14 automakers to recall more than 60 million vehicles in the United States, and millions more overseas.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Thursday repeated previous warnings that drivers in humid regions — particularly Florida, Texas, other parts of the Gulf Coast and Southern California — were at particular risk.

High humidity, as well as high temperatures, causes a compound Takata uses to inflate its airbags to break down over time, and become more explosive. That puts older models at risk.

More than 70 percent of the high-risk vehicles, which were recalled between 2008 and 2011, have already been repaired, according to the agency, which has been testing bags that have been replaced. But about 313,000 of those vehicles remain unrepaired, the agency said.

Car owners can check whether a car has been recalled at SaferCar.gov, and those affected should contact the nearest dealer to schedule a repair, the agency said. Replacement parts are available immediately for the high-risk vehicles, it said.

Honda said on Thursday that it would more than double the size of its customer service staff to handle calls from car owners. It was also planning a targeted social media campaign to identify, and communicate with, owners of the at-risk cars.

Over all, Honda has mailed almost 18 million recall notices and sent almost six million emails to urge car owners to have their vehicles repaired, the automaker said.

Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat from Florida, demanded a more proactive approach.

“These vehicles are death traps, and Takata and Honda have understated the risks for far too long,” Mr. Nelson, ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said in a statement on Thursday.

“Merely telling people to come to dealers is not enough — they need to go out and find these vehicles and get them off the road,” Mr. Nelson said.

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