ARC Automotive, a major supplier of airbag parts for about 25% of US vehicles, has refused to comply with a request from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to recall its defective product. The NHTSA revealed that ARC Automotive’s airbag inflators had ruptured, causing injuries due to a safety defect. The agency urged the company to recall 67 million of its inflators immediately.
However, ARC Automotive rejected the NHTSA’s findings and stated that they did not support a large-scale recall. The company argued that the incidents cited by the NHTSA were isolated and did not indicate a widespread defect in their products. ARC Automotive supplies airbag parts to several major automakers, including BMW, General Motors, Hyundai, and Kia.
General Motors (GM) recently agreed to recall nearly one million vehicles in response to the safety concerns. This decision was prompted by an incident in March where the driver of a GM SUV suffered facial injuries from a ruptured airbag. The NHTSA’s letter to ARC Automotive included nine incidents dating back to 2009, forming the basis of an eight-year investigation.
Stephen Ridella, director of the NHTSA’s office of defects investigation, emphasized that an airbag inflator that ruptures during deployment is clearly defective. He recommended an immediate recall, highlighting the unreasonable risk of death and injury to front-seat passengers caused by the defect.
ARC Automotive responded by expressing strong disagreement with the NHTSA’s findings. The company’s vice-president of product integrity, Steve Gold, stated that they take any potential issues with their products seriously. However, he argued that investigators failed to identify a widespread or systematic defect and instead focused on isolated incidents resulting from random manufacturing anomalies that have already been addressed.
If an agreement cannot be reached, it is likely that a legal battle will ensue between ARC Automotive and the NHTSA. This situation is reminiscent of the prolonged recall of over 100 million defective inflators manufactured by Takata Corporation, which eventually led to the company filing for bankruptcy.
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