Waiting for repair parts can be a problem with some recalls.  However, the most important timing issue I have seen in many safety recalls relates to the timing of the recall notification.  Altough the federal regulations require a company to file a defect report within five days of determining that there exists a safety defect, the manufacturers almost always try to avoid this rule.  They do this by changing on the date on which they “officially” determined that such a defect exists, even if they actually knew about the defect for a long time.

For example, an engineer can often very quickly determine that one of his or her parts is defective or fails to comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), but that determination doesn’t start the five-day clock running. This is true even if the engineer designed the part and knows more about it than anyone else.  The engineer’s manager and executive and even the chief engineer can agree the part is defective, and that usually still doesn’t start the clock running.  The clock doesn’t begin running, according to the car companies, until they say it starts running: they usually make an official “determination” that there is a safety defect by a committee or very high level executive after input from lots of people who have no business deciding whether a defect exists, including the bean counters (financial staffs).  Either the part is defective or it is not – how much the recall costs or deciding the best way to tell consumers about it does not change whether the defect actually exists.

Most people don’t realize that the time between when the engineer decides a part is defective and when the final committee “officially” determines it is defective can be many YEARS.  Yes, you read that correctly: YEARS.

During that time period, the car company can be working on figuring out why the defect occured, whose responsibility it is, and designing a fix for the defect.  However, during all that time, additional consumers are exposed to the defect without even knowing about it, which can literally kill them.  Even if a fix is not readily available, notifying consumers about the defect can at least allow them to not use the vehicle, or, if they are considering buying one affected by the defect, they can buy a different vehicle.  In some cases, the defect affects only a certain seating position; if the consumer knew about the defect, they can then make sure no one uses that seat until the fix becomes available.

In some cases, the car companies who dragged out the time before “officially” determining there was a defect then limited the affected cars to a certain mileage level.  Thus, the longer they dragged it out, the less cars they had bring in for the recall, since the passage of time would mean that some cars would not longer qualify for the mandatory inspection and/or repair.

I don’t know how the people who intentionally delay telling consumers about a safety defect can sleep at night!

Nissan has recalled over 200,000 of its 2007 and 2008 Nissan Altima, Nissan 350Z, Nissan Murano, Nissan Rogue, Infiniti G35, Infiniti G37 and Infiniti EX35 vehicles for a safety defect in their advanced air bag systems.  The safety recall stems from a manufacturing defect (out-of-spec varistor) within the Occupant Classification System (OCS) manufactured by Continental Automotive Systems.

The OCS is part of the advanced air bag system, and is intended to help the system decide whether to deploy the air bags, and if so, with how much force they should deploy.

In some situations, the defect will cause an interruption of the signal between the OCS and the airbag control unit (ACU).  When that happens, the safety flaw can prevent air bag deployment in a crash when you need it most.

The government’s recall number is 08V-521.

Hyundai has recalled 2001 and 2002 Hyundai Elantra vehicles for a safety defect in their side air bag systems.  The wires for those systems run under the front seats, and are exposed to contact with objects placed under the seats.  The contact can damage the wires, which can prevent deployment of the side air bags during a side impact crash.

The government’s recall number is 08V-533.

Ford recalled numerous vehicles for a manufacturing defect in passenger air bag inflators.   The vehicles include the 1995 Ford Countour, 1995 Ford Crown Victoria, 1995 Ford Explorer, 1995 Ford Mustang, 1995 Ford Probe, 1995 Ford Windstar, 1995 Lincoln Town Car, 1995 Mercury Grand Marquis, and the 1995 Mercury Mystique.

The manufacturing defect resulted in the inflator being cracked during the process of securing the igniter inside the inflator.  This can cause two different safety problems if the airbag inflates during an accident.  First, the passenger airbag may not inflate properly, since some of the gas will escape from the inflator and will not fully pressurize the bag.  Second, those hot gases that escape can cause burn injuries to a consumer and can ignite flammable materials, resulting in a fire.

The inflator manufacturers are required to conduct certain quality control testing for every batch of airbag inflators.  That testing includes “lot acceptance testing”; parts are not supposed to be shipped from the supplier’s airbag manufacturing facility until those tests are successfully passed.  There are also other quality controls and process control standards that are supposed to be met before those parts are shipped.

This is yet another instance where, despite promises of strict quality control, defects are not caught during the production process.  This means the defective parts are not identified, and are instead installed into consumers’ vehicles.

The government’s recall number is 95E-006002.

Ford has recalled 29,000 Ford Escort cars from the 1995 model year for an airbag defect.  Two bolts that are intended to secure the passenger airbag module to the instrument panel (dash assembly) are missing.  In a crash where the air bags deploy, the passenger air bag can come out of the dash,which increases the risk of personal injury to the passenger.

Isn’t it amazing that despite all the claims about excellent quality control and quality being “Job One”, mistakes like this still happen?  And this isn’t just an issue about poor fit and finish, but a safety defect that can injure you.  The dealership fix is simple: secure the bolts like the factory was supposed to.

The government’s recall number is 94V-197.

General Motors announced a recall of more than 675,000 Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac Sunfire vehicles from the 1996 and 1997 model years for an airbag sensor defect.  Those vehicles use a Sensing and Diagnostic Module (SDM) that also serves as a “black box” for the airbag system.  Unfortunately, GM did not calibrate the software inside the SDM properly.

This safety sensor defect could result in the airbag sensor interpreting non-accident events as crashes requiring deployment.  In this kind of failure, even an impact to the underside of the car (such as from a rock) can fool the air bag sensor into thinking it was a serious crash and deploying the airbags.  There have also been reports of the airbags deploying without any significant impact at all.  If the airbag deploys while you are driving, it can shock you and even knock you out, causing an accident.  Of course, since the airbag already deployed, it is not there to protect you when you get into that accident.  The result can be serious personal injury or a wrongful death.

In such a case, you have to be prepared for GM’s argument that the air bag deployed during the accident, rather than before the accident.  There are ways to determine this by analyzing the internal (hexadecimal) data within the crash sensor and forensic marks from the accident, but it is a complicated process requiring engineering skills.  If this happened to you or a loved one, it would be helpful to hire an airbag lawyer who also has airbag engineering experience.  You need someone who can understand the complex issues in interpreting the black box data in General Motors vehicles, including the Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac Sunfire.

The government’s recall number is 98V-146.

Chrysler has recalled more than 1.5 million 1996-1998 model year minivans sold under the Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Caravan, Dodge Grand Caravan, Plymouth Voyager, and Plymouth Grand Voyager names.  The issue arose due to defective clocksprings located in the steering column that can prevent driver airbag deployment.  A typical symptom of a defective clockspring is that the driver air bag does not deploy, even though the passenger air bag does deploy (even if there was no passenger).

Unfortunately, Chrysler refused to make clockspring replacement mandatory for all these vehicles.  Instead, they negotiated a deal with the federal government requiring replacement of the clockspring only for those minivans having less than 70,000 miles.  For those having more miles, replacement isn’t required unless the air bag warning lamp is on, and the system diagnoses a defect in the clockspring.  Unfortunately, it’s possible that your warning light is not on when you are involved in a crash, and yet the clockspring fails and prevents deployment of the driver airbag.  Thus, you may not know you have a problem until it’s too late.  This can result in devastating personal injuries or death.

To compound the problem, Chrysler did not issue this recall promptly after discovering the first defective clocksprings.  After numerous reports of problems, the government opened its formal defect investigation into this issue in August of 2000.  However, Chrysler did not issue the recall until more than two years later.  Of course, the longer it took for them to issue the recall, the less vehicles would qualify for the mandatory replacement of clocksprings for vehicles having less than 70,000 miles.

The government’s recall number is 02V-293.

A recent news story from the Associated Press carried on the MSNBC website illustrates how all side airbags are not created equal.  Side impact crash tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) evaluated the Nissan Titan and Chevrolet Silverado 1500 pickup trucks.  Without their optional side impact air bags, both trucks received the  IIHS lowest possible rating of “Poor”.

The IIHS then retested those two trucks with their optional side airbags.  Incredibly, the crash protection for the Nissan Titan was rated only “Marginal” in that crash test.  Even more incredibly, the Chevrolet Silverado pickup still continued to receive the lowest possible rating of “Poor”, even when tested with the optional side air bag.

According to the IIHS spokesperson, this result was due in part to the design of the Silverado’s side airbag system.  It used a side curtain airbag to reduce the risk of injury to the head.  However, it failed to include a torso airbag for side impacts, leaving the consumer’s upper body more vulnerable to the crash forces.  The IIHS noted that the inadequate side structure also contributed to the poor performance; this side structure is part of the safety cage that is supposed to protect a person during an accident.

This testing reinforces the fact that not all side air bag systems are created equal.  Different designs perform differently in crash testing, and in real-world accidents.  These differences in airbag designs, or defects in side airbags, could mean the difference between life and death for you or a loved one.

There is no single “airbag law” that covers all laws, rules and regulations that apply to airbags. However, some people refer to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 208 (FMVSS 208) as the “airbag law” since it contains the primary regulations for occupant crash protection passed by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Although FMVSS 208 is about 80 pages long, its core is represented by injury criteria measured by a crash test dummy during testing.

However, a car can still be defective even if it complies with FMVSS 208, as it represents only a minimum standard; carmakers are free to exceed the requirements of FMVSS 208, and they should clearly do so.  State laws relating to negligence, strict liability (defective products), breach of warranty, and others impose a duty on the car companies to use reasonable care in designing and manufacturing their cars and avoiding defects in them.  As an airbag lawyer, I see many cases where the manufacturer claims to have complied with all applicable safety standards and yet there are airbag defects.  These problems range from unwarranted deployments and late deployments to airbag-induced injuries and failure to deploy.  Furthermore, millions of cars, trucks, vans, and SUVs have been recalled to fix airbag safety defects, even though each of those vehicles was originally claimed to have met its safety standards.

The injury criteria used in the federal standards have evolved in the past decade as frontal airbag systems have evolved, but are summarized below for the 50^th percentile male test dummy. There are also injury criteria for other size crash test dummies, including those representing a 5^th percentile (small-stature) female, 6 year old child, 3 year old child, and 12 month old child (using the CRABI Child Restraint Air Bag Interaction test dummy). Additional information can be found in Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 571.208, as well as part 572.

INJURY CRITERIA FOR 50^th PERCENTILE MALE HYBRID III TEST DUMMY

Pre-depowered airbags (generally prior to 1998 model year):

1. All portions of the test dummy shall be contained within the outer surfaces of the vehicle passenger compartment
2. Head Injury Criterion (HIC) limit: 1000 (36 ms maximum)
3. Chest acceleration limit: 60 g’s
4. Chest compression (deflection) limit: 3 inches
5. Femur loading (force) limit: 2250 pounds

Depowered airbags (generally beginning with the 1998 model year):

1. All portions of the test dummy shall be contained within the outer surfaces of the vehicle passenger compartment
2. Head Injury Criterion (HIC) limit: 1000 (36 ms maximum)
3. Chest acceleration limit: 60 g’s
4. Chest compression (deflection) limit: 3 inches
5. Femur loading (force) limit: 2250 pounds
6. Neck flexion (forward bending) moment: 190 Nm
7. Neck extension (rearward bending) moment: 57 Nm

  Advanced airbags (phased in beginning generally with the 2004 model year):

1. All portions of the test dummy shall be contained within the outer surfaces of the vehicle passenger compartment
2. Head Injury Criterion (HIC) limit: 700 (15 ms maximum)
3. Chest acceleration limit: 60 g’s
4. Chest compression (deflection) limit: 63 mm (2.5 inches)
5. Femur loading (force) limit: 2250 pounds
6. Neck tension limit: 4170 N (937 pounds)
7. Neck compression: 4000 N (899 pounds)
8. Combined neck injury (Nij) limit: 1.0 (for any combination of tension-extension, tension-flexion, compression-extension or compression-flexion)

Chrysler is recalling nearly a million minivans from the 1998 to 2000 model years sold as the Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Caravan, Dodge Grand Caravan, Plymouth Voyager and Plymouth Grand Voyager.  A defect inside the clockspring can cause the driver airbag to fail to deploy during a crash.  This could lead lead to serious person injuries or wrongful death from the accident.  However, Chrysler limited mandatory replacement of the clockspring only to those vehicles having 70,000 miles; owners of vehicles having more miles than that receive only an extended warranty, unless the clockspring fails.  Of course, if it fails during a crash, then it will be too late.

The government’s recall number is 04V-480.