Airbags are a required safety feature on cars sold
in the U. S. since at least 1998.
They have undoubtedly saved lives, especially in situations where the
driver or passengers neglected to use seatbelts. So whatever else we say about them, we should bear in mind
that overall, cars are probably safer with airbags than without them. But only if the airbags themselves are
safe. And lately, some drivers
have found that the airbag cure was much worse than the accident disease.
Over a hundred injuries and at least two fatalities
have been attributed to defective airbags made by Japanese supplier
Takata. According to the New York Times, in 2009 a 33-year-old
mother of three ran into a mail truck in Richmond, Virginia, and her airbag
deployed. The injuries from the
wreck itself were minor. But a
piece of shrapnel from the metal canister containing the airbag explosive shot
through her neck and she allegedly bled to death as a result.
For an airbag to be an effective cushion during a
collision, it has to deploy in well under a tenth of a second. This involves creating a large volume
of high-pressure gas in a short time.
The early airbags used an explosive called sodium azide, but the residue
was toxic. So in the 1990s, manufacturers began to research other chemicals
that would be less noxious and also allow for a smaller propellant
package.
Takata, one of the largest airbag suppliers in the
world, developed a compound based largely on good old ammonium nitrate (the
same chemical involved in the West, Texas explosion on April 17, 2013), along
with other components designed to moderate the tendency of this substance to
detonate and to absorb moisture.
The manufacture of any product involving explosives requires rigorous
adherence to procedures that maintain the integrity of the ingredients all the
way from the raw materials to the finished item. But as various documents have indicated, Takata has not
always been sufficiently diligent in their manufacturing processes.
As Takata has responded to inquiries by automaker
customers and regulatory agencies, it has admitted to several manufacturing
errors over the years. Again
according to the Times, one set of
defective airbags was attributed to workers in a Mexican assembly plant who allowed
moisture-sensitive explosive ingredients to sit on the plant floor too long in
a humid environment. Other
documents show rusty propellant containers and foreign objects in the
propellant cans may have been responsible. Problems with the airbags began to show up as long ago as
2004, and in a series of widening recalls in the last few months, eleven
automakers have recalled over 14 million vehicles for replacement of suspect
airbags made by Takata. Many of
the vehicles being recalled are in the most humid states in the U. S., which
indicates that deterioration due to high humidity is the main culprit
here. Toyota has told its dealers
that if the replacement airbags on a recalled vehicle are not immediately
available, they should put a sticker on the dashboard next to the defective
airbag. The sticker reads "Do
Not Sit Here." Good luck with
that.
This particular story comes close to home,
personally. In our Honda household
we operate both a Civic and an Element.
They are very good cars, but neither has been in a major collision that
set off the airbags. For this I am
grateful. I checked their VINs
(vehicle identification numbers) at a U. S. government website designed to let
owners know of any recalls out on their vehicles, and hit the jackpot both
times. I don't think I'll wait for
the dealer to write me. My
89-year-old father-in-law rides in the passenger seat of the Element. It would be a shame for a World War II
U. S. Navy veteran of the Pacific theater to be cut down by a defective
Japanese airbag. But it could
happen, at least until I get those airbags replaced.
As hazards go, this one is not worth lying awake
nights about, unless maybe you work for Takata or one of the affected
automakers. As long as you're not
in a wreck, apparently the airbags won't spontaneously combust, and most of
them appear to work properly, especially if you don't live in an area that's
particularly humid (watch out, Houstonians!). But even a few defective airbags are too many.
We won't know for some time why it took so long to
uncover the problems and do something about them. But some contributing factors are apparent already. First, the problem arose not in a
particular automaker's design (as was the case with the GM ignition recall), but
with a supplier's manufacturing process.
It is impossible to test an airbag non-destructively, so except for
sample testing, which automakers may or may not do, I'm not sure how they could
have caught the problem by incoming inspections of Tanaka's product.
People can be injured even by airbags that work
properly and have no design or manufacturing defects, so sorting out incidents
that involve defective airbags from those that don't is not a trivial problem,
except in the glaringly obvious cases when metal shards from the airbag tear it
to ribbons and slice into passengers.
And while the automakers did the minimum required when they received
word about the airbag injuries, which was to notify the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) within five days, they don't have to give
a lot of details. And if the feds
choose not to follow up the notification, the matter ends there, as it did for
most of the last ten years. Only
when lawsuits and headlines began to pop up about the matter did the automakers
start issuing recalls and pressured Takata to shape up.
I don't know what Takata's market share in the
airbag industry is, but my guess is it's pretty high. Companies that sell products to large OEM (original
equipment manufacturer) firms often develop too-chummy relationships with their
few customers, who in turn are reluctant to threaten to take their business
elsewhere if problems arise. It's
the old monopoly problem, but in this case the consumer is harmed not by
exploitative prices—I'm sure the automakers pressured Takata to keep their
prices down—but by defective merchandise.
Unfortunately, there is no easy solution for this type of structural
problem, except for buyers and regulators to be increasingly vigilant for signs
that there is a manufacturing problem.
If you happen to drive one of the fourteen million
vehicles affected by the recall, here's hoping you get your car to the dealer
soon—and you get it back with something better than a "Do Not Sit
Here" sticker.
Sources:
Car and Driver magazine's online edition carried a report on the
recall that I referred to, at http://blog.caranddriver.com/massive-takata-airbag-recall-everything-you-need-to-know-including-full-list-of-affected-vehicles/. I also referred to the New York Times article published online
on Sept. 11, 2014 at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/12/business/air-bag-flaw-long-known-led-to-recalls.html. The U. S. NHTSA's VIN recall website is
at https://vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin/.