Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON: Honda Motor has issued a “Do Not Drive” warning for 8,200 Acura and Honda cars with unrepaired Takata airbag inflators in the United States (US).
The urgent warning covers various 2001-2003 model Honda Accord, Civic CR-V and Odyssey, Acura 3.2CL, and 3.2 TL cars with so-called “Alpha” inflators.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that owners of those cars should not drive them until they get repaired vehicles, warning that “the risk to car occupants is dire.”
More than thirty deaths worldwide, including at least 23 United States. Fatalities and hundreds of wounds in various automakers’ cars since 2009 are linked to Takata airbag inflators that can explode, unleashing potentially deadly metal shrapnel inside cars.
Honda vehicles
NHTSA said that the previous month the February death of a driver of a 2002 Accord in Bowling Green, Kentucky, had been due to a faulty airbag inflator. Honda has reported 17 United States. Deaths and more than 200 wounds in the United States (US) related to Takata inflator ruptures.
Over the previous decade, more than 67 million Takata airbag inflators have been recalled in the US by more than twenty automakers and hundreds of million inflators worldwide, in the biggest auto safety callback in history.
NHTSA says 8.5 million cars remained unrepaired, including 3.6 million General Motors cars and 1.2 million Honda cars.
“Do not gamble with your life or the life of someone you love – schedule your free repair today before it’s too late,” said NHTSA Acting Administrator Ann Carlson.
