Is there anyone in North Carolina or the rest of the country who is not aware that there may be issues with air bags in a lot of cars, trucks and SUVs? Raise your hands if you are one. No one? Hopefully not.
This is one of only a few issues that is likely top of mind for most everyone in the world, because with every passing day it seems that there are fewer and fewer vehicles that actually might be affected. By the most recent count we can find there are about 48 million vehicles worldwide affected by the recall for suspected faulty air bags made by the Japanese part maker Takata Corp. Car models made by no fewer than 19 manufacturers are involved.
The issue, in case you weren’t aware, is that at least eight people have died and nearly 140 people have been injured by flying shrapnel. The metal shards were fired at them when Takata air bags exploded too forcefully in car accidents.
What’s been causing the issues isn’t known. Investigators suspect age or exposure to too much heat and moisture may be causing chemical propellants to decay in most instances. But in the case of Volkswagen, which issued a voluntary recall late this week, the only reported issue occurred in a 2015 model.
So what is a body to do? Federal officials say consumers should check the safercar.gov now to see what vehicles are covered. And they say that checking back regularly would be a good idea because of how things have been playing out since this all got started.
The other thing that may be good to remember is that if you suspect faulty air bags to be a contributing factor in injuries you suffer in an accident, contact a personal injury attorney to learn what your rights and options may be.