Does the Takata Airbag Recall Apply to Your Car?

It’s a terrible thing when automobile airbags, which are supposed to keep you safe, are so badly made that they could actually injure or even kill you.  Unfortunately, airbags made by Takata that have been installed in an astonishing 30 million vehicles in the United States are defective and might rupture and spray dangerous piece of metal when they inflate. These airbags have been recalled.  If you have these airbags in your vehicle, you should get them replaced right away.

The scope of the recall is staggering. It is the largest vehicle recall in U.S history and affects one out of every seven vehicles in the U.S.

Are Takata Airbags in Your Car?

How do you know if you have these airbags? They have been installed in vehicles made by 10 different car manufacturers — BMW, Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, and Toyota. Most were installed in vehicle model years 2002 through 2008, though some have been installed as recently as 2014. Manufacturers were supposed to have sent out recall notices, but some owners of vehicles with the defective airbags may not know about the recall or may not yet have gotten the airbags replaced.

Luckily, there is now an easy way to tell if your airbags are part of the Takata recall. The U.S. Department of Transportation has posted a page online where you can type in the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) from your vehicle and find out whether it contains Takata airbags that have been recalled — Recalls Look-Up By VIN page.

If you find out your car or other vehicle does contain these airbags, don’t delay in getting them replaced. A spokesperson from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently announced that they have identified the eighth death caused by these airbags.

Why Takata Airbags are Dangerous

The problem with the Takata airbags is in the part that inflates the bag upon impact. The defective airbags may inflate with explosive force, which can cause the inflator’s housing to break and metal shards to spray throughout the passenger cabin of the vehicle with lethal force.

If You’ve Been Injured

If you or a loved one have been injured by a defective Takata airbag, our attorneys at Kaire & Heffernan, LLC are here to help. Please call us 866-769-0123, or leave us a short note on our website, and we will be glad to schedule a free consultation to answer your questions. We will discuss what you need to do next to protect your rights.At Kaire & Heffernan, our partners work directly with you. We speak Spanish, we respond quickly to your calls, and we use our extensive experience and skill with personal injury cases to get you the compensation that you are legally entitled to.