WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co. must recall 3 million vehicles with potentially faulty Takata airbags to the driver, U.S. car safety regulator said Tuesday, bidding on a bid from the second-largest U.S. carmaker to avoid a recall. shown.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it did not want to deny the petitions filed by Ford and Mazda Motor Corp in 2017 to recall vehicles with potentially dangerous inflating machines. The decision also requires Mazda to recall and repair driver airbags in approximately 5,800 vehicles. The memories will deal with the different vehicles from 2006 to 2012.
The shortage, which in rare cases resulted in inflatable bowls of airbags bursting and sending potentially deadly metal fragments – especially after prolonged exposure to high humidity – caused the largest car recall in American history of more than 67 million inflating machines. Worldwide, about 100 million inflator machines installed by 19 major automakers have been recalled.
The NHTSA said the “evidence makes it clear that these inflating machines pose a significant safety risk.”
The car safety agency said earlier this month that at least 17 million vehicles with Takata airbags remain unrepairable.
Takata inflatables have killed at least 27 people worldwide and 18 in the United States, and more than 400 have reported injuries.
Ford said Tuesday that the vehicles recalled by the NHTSA were subject to an earlier recall by Takata for the passenger-side airbag, but did not comment further.
Mazda did not immediately comment.
The recall applies to various Ford Ranger, Fusion, Edge, Lincoln Zephyr / MKZ, Mercury Milan and Lincoln MKX vehicles, along with the Mazda vehicles from the 2007 year model B Series. The Mazda vehicles were designed by Ford, built on the same platform and use the same airbag blowers as the Ranger trucks.
The regulator said Ford must submit a proposed schedule to the NHTSA within 30 days for the notice of vehicle owners and the launch of a solution. ‘
Two people were killed in Takata airbag fractures in the Ford Ranger vehicles recalled earlier, with the most recent death in 2017.
In November, the NHTSA said it was rejecting a General Motors petition to prevent 5.9 million U.S. vehicles with Takata airbags being recalled.
In November, the agency said GM should recall the model year trucks and sport utility vehicles for 2007-2014. GM has estimated in security statements that it would cost $ 1.2 billion if it were needed to replace airbag blow pumps it was trying to avoid, and said it would recall 7 million vehicles worldwide.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Richard Pullin and Leslie Adler)
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