Former Takata employees report secret testing to airbags in 2004

If there is one part of your vehicle that can save your life in the event of an accident, it may be your airbag. However, that might not be the case if your airbag was made by Takata. The New York Times reported that after learning that one of its airbags ruptured, spraying metal fragments at a driver in Alabama, Takata conducted secret tests on 50 airbags that were retrieved from scrap yards. The New York Times cited two former employees who were involved in the secret testing as the source of the report.

During the testing, which was done in 2004, the steel inflators in two of the airbags cracked, which can lead to a rupture. Although the engineers began designing possible fixes, they never alerted federal regulators to the danger. According to the New York Times, Takata executives went so far as to order lab technicians to delete testing data from their computers and destroy the parts they were testing. […]

NHTSA under review for Takata airbag recall. Agency putting more pressure on Takata to turn over records

More than 14 million cars have been recalled around the globe for faulty airbags from the Japanese supplier Takata Corp. The recall includes 11 million vehicles in the United States alone. The NHTSA is under fire from lawmakers for issuing a geographic recall of vehicles.

Critics of the geographic recall, including several U.S. senators, call it irresponsible. The NHTSA limits the recall to specific geographic regions of high humidity, but does not take into consideration the mobility of American drivers.

In June, the NHTSA inquired as to whether Takata air bag inflators made from 2000 to 2007 were properly sealed or subject to other defects. The agency asked certain automakers to recall millions of airbags in certain regions, including Florida and Puerto Rico, where the parts were exposed to higher humidity that could cause deterioration of the explosive material inside. […]

Nearly 8 million cars recalled for faulty Takata airbags

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued an urgent advisory to the owners of 7.8 million cars throughout the U.S., which involve ten different manufacturers, for a problem involving faulty airbags.

The Department of Transportation will conduct a review of the NHTSA, which has been criticized for its handling of the Takata airbag recall. The agencies website, which helps owners determine whether their car has been recalled, was down for two days after they released an urgent recall notice. An investigation by the New York Times, found that the NHTSA did not react to problems until they reached a crisis level, including the Takata airbag problems.

The NHTSA has urged the owners of certain Toyota, Honda, Mazda, BMW, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors vehicles to act immediately on recall notices to replace defective Takata airbags. The message from the NHTSA came with a particular urgency for owners of vehicles affected by regional recalls in the following areas: Florida, […]

Jury awards $175 million in Trinity Guardrail Case

Trinity Industries, the maker of highway guardrails, was found by a jury on Monday to have defrauded the federal government. The jury in Texas, found Trinity liable in the civil lawsuit for violating the False Claims Act, according to CNBC. The jury said that those violations caused the U.S. Government to incur $175 million in damages, as the federal government helps state transportation departments purchase approved products, including Trinity guardrail products, for use on highways across the country. Under the federal False Claims Act, the verdict amount would be tripled to $525 million.

The case was filed by Joshua Harman, a competitor who discovered that in 2005, the company had made changes to a piece of steel in the front of the guardrail without alerting the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), as is required. Harman’s lawsuit claimed the modifications made by Trinity could be deadly. […]

GM issued 75th recall of the year this week while ignition switch death toll rose to 24

Not even the police are safe in General Motors cars. GM announced its 75th recall of 2014 earlier this week, recalling 7,600 Chevrolet Caprice police vehicles, because of a transmission issue. The Detroit News reported that the vehicles could roll away when the drivers believed they were in park. This recall marked GM’s seventh recall in nine days.

GMs recalls now total approximately 30 million vehicles. The most recent recall includes the Chevrolet Caprice police vehicles from the 2011-2013 model years. GM said that the cars, which were imported from Australia, could be shifted out of park without a foot on the brake pedal. The problem may also enable the driver to remove the ignition key without the transmission being in park. This could cause a potential roll away hazard and increasing the risk of injury to occupants exiting the vehicle or people walking nearby. […]