General Motors is recalling about a million 2014 through 2017 model sport utility vehicles…because the airbag inflators could explode and shower passengers with shrapnel.
But as Quinn Klinefelter reports…the company responsible for the airbags…is refusing to launch a much wider recall effort.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants the company that makes the airbags – A-R-C – or Ark --Automotive – to recall a total of 67 million airbag inflators officials fear could explode.
Federal officials say the defective airbags caused at least two deaths…including a Michigan driver killed two years ago when an inflator ruptured in a 2015 Chevrolet Traverse. But ARC Automotive is resisting a widespread recall…arguing the airbag problems are random manufacturing anomalies.
When airbags made by the company Takata suffered similar problems…it forced the largest recall in automotive history…and drove Takata into bankruptcy.
At least a dozen automakers use ARC’s airbags…and the recall could conceivably affect about a quarter of all the vehicles on U-S roadways.