More than 5M Drivers Worldwide at Risk Over Air Bag Malfunctions

Honda, Fiat Chrysler, and Mercedes-Benz have already issued some of their recalls.

In documents posted Thursday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Continental said the air bag control units have a power supply component that could corrode and prevent the air bags from deploying or cause inadvertent inflation. Older models can experience a failure of their airbag control units, which means the supplemental restraint system, or SRS, may not deploy in a crash.

Fiat Chrysler has plans on recalling some 112,000 2009 Dodge Journeys, 2008 and 2009 Dodge Grand Caravan, as well as Chrysler Town & Country minivans.

Years after the Takata airbag inflator issue was brought to light, automakers like Honda is still working to clean up the mess Takata-made with the whole airbag exploding issue.

That recall crisis is now expanding, with Takata alerting automakers that some newer models of its airbags are also at risk of exploding.

A driver in Belleview, Florida, was injured when his auto hit a concrete wall at 50 miles per hour and the air bags didn’t inflate, according to a complaint filed with the agency. In total, 341,444 Honda vehicles are affected by the recall.

Honda Motor Co 7267.T on Friday said it was recalling about 443,000 vehicles including its Fit compact cars in Japan over potentially faulty air bags manufactured by Takata Corp, as a global recall continues to mount. Honda’s latest recall is included in that count.

In October, Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz USA unit recalled 126,000 C-Class sedans from model years 2008 and 2009 and certain 2010 Mercedes Benz GLK-Class vehicles to address the issue.

In the U.S. alone, the tally for Honda vehicles recalled for faulty Takata airbag inflators has now reached 8.51 million vehicles.

Another problem has developed with automotive air bags, this one resulting in recalls of up to 5 million vehicles worldwide. Millions more drivers have been waiting months for the replacement parts to get their airbags fixed.

Initial reports on Wednesday indicated about 1.7 million vehicles would be recalled as part of an expanding investigation into the Takata defect.

Asked about a broader recall, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told reporters on Tuesday that NHTSA’s investigation “has not been closed”.

Honda would not say where the other recalls will be.