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!

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.

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)

Nissan is recalling nearly a quarter-million Nissan Pathfinder, Nissan Frontier and Nissan Xterra vehicles from the 2005 to 2009 model years.  The front airbag sensor is not sealed properly, and can rust on the inside.  This can cause the driver and passenger air bags to fail to deploy during a crash.

This recall applies only to those vehicles in certain “salt belt” states, primarily in the Northeast, Midwest and Atlantic regions.  Owners of these vehicles in the other states get only an extended warranty and a sticker for their warranty booklet, but no mandatory replacement of the safety sensor.  The government’s recall number is 08V-690.