The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stated on Thursday it is updating a probe of over 8 million air bag inflators developed by ARC Automotive Inc after an individual was killed in Canada when an inflator ruptured in a Hyundai automobile during the last month.
The investigation covers inflators utilized by General Motors Co, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Hyundai Motor Co and Kia Motors Inc and covers a minimum of 8 million inflators utilized by the automakers through 2004, however might include more recent vehicles, the agency stated. Canadian regulators are likewise investigating.
ARC did not right away respond to a request for statement.
NHTSA representative Bryan Thomas stated the firm will guide the collection and screening of inflators as part of its effort to figure out the cause of the rupture events.
The upgrade comes as regulators are extremely inspecting air bag inflators following a series of casualties in automobiles with Takata Corp inflators.
Upward of 100 million automobiles worldwide with Takata air bag inflators have been declared defective and are connected to 13 deaths and over 100 injuries. Takata inflators can blow up with excessive force and spray metal shrapnel into automobile traveler compartments.
NHTSA stated the ARC inflators are a hybrid design utilizing high-pressure saved gas and a percentage of ammonium nitrate to pump up the air bags. It stated its initial examination proves to “significant design differences in between the ARC inflators and the Takata inflators presently under recall.
NHTSA at first opened an examination on 490,000 cars in July 2015 following two reported injuries, in a 2002 Chrysler Town & Country and a 2004 Kia Optima, after inflators made by ARC in Tennessee ruptured.
The upgrade follows confirmation that a July 8 deadly crash in Newfoundland and Labrador was tied to an ARC air bag inflator rupture. The fatality remained in a 2009 Hyundai Elantra with an inflator put together in China.
The 2009 Elantra offered in the United States did not utilize the Chinese-made inflator, NHTSA said in a filing, including that it is unclear if any of those Chinese-made ARC inflators were sold in U.S. cars.
General Motors, Fiat Chrysler and Hyundai all stated they are fully complying with NHTSA’s investigation.
