Credit: flickr / AllanS
Today, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a consumer safety advisory on malfunctioning counterfeit airbags. The NHTSA suspects that in the past three years, bags that look identical to the real thing but don't work properly may have been installed in nearly 0.1 percent of all U.S. vehicles (which works out to about 250,000 cars). So far no deaths have been linked to the bags, but federal testing has found them to consistently fail to deploy or even explode in a burst of shrapnel.
The feds think the fraudulent bags probably found their way into consumer vehicles by way of independent repair shops and online stores. In August, for example, police arrested a mechanic in North Carolina on suspicion of trafficking counterfeit airbags. Police said they found 1500 of them at the man's home, plus 100 more at the garage where he worked.
"Organized criminals are selling dangerous counterfeit and substandard airbags to consumers and suppliers with little to no regard to hazardous health and safety consequences," U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton said in an agency press release. "We will continue to aggressively investigate criminal supply chains with our law enforcement and private industry partners and bring these criminals to justice."
NHTSA advises that only vehicles that have had their airbags replaced by third-party repair shops within the past three years are at risk. If you suspect your car may have had a counterfeit bag installed, you can contact your manufacturer?s call center and have your vehicle inspected free of charge. A full list of manufacturer call centers and vehicles at risk is available at www.safercar.gov.
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