Takata and the defective airbag scandal
15 years after the first cases of serious accidents caused by faulty airbags, the scandal linked to the Japanese company Takata continues to worry the automotive world. The latest recall, which took place on 17 May 2024, affected approximately 600 thousand cars of the Citroën C3 and DS3 models, produced between 2009 and 2019. These cars are equipped with a type of airbag that is believed to be responsible for the deaths of at least 27 people in the United States and more than 400 injuries. The Gazzetta dello Sport writes it.
Takata’s controversial beginnings
Born in the 1990s, Takata began producing smaller and cheaper airbags than those available on the market, thus becoming the preferred choice of many car manufacturers. However, suspicions regarding the safety of these devices were already emerging in the early 2000s, when some accidents revealed injuries to drivers caused by violent explosions of airbag in apparently non-severe conditions.
A problem related to ammonium nitrate
The main cause of Takata’s troubles lies in the use of ammonium nitrate as an explosive agent in airbags. Unlike the more common and expensive tetrazole, ammonium nitrate can become extremely unstable in hot, humid environments without an adequate drying agent. This instability can lead to a violent explosion of the canister containing the gas, causing, in some cases, metal splinters to be thrown towards passengers.
Investigations and financial consequences
The tragedy linked to Takata airbags triggered a series of investigations by the NHTSA, the American transport safety agency, which led to the recall of millions of vehicles belonging to eleven different car manufacturers, including Honda, Ford, BMW , Mazda, Citroën and Toyota. The economic burden of these recalls was enormous, culminating in Takata’s bankruptcy in 2017, with debts of 8 billion euros and 46,000 employees left without work.
How to check for faulty airbags
Faced with the growing number of replaced airbags, which in the USA alone has reached 45 million, there is a need for car owners to check their vehicles for faulty devices. This can be done by consulting the official websites of the manufacturers or by following the instructions provided if you receive a recall notice.
The Takata affair remains a painful lesson on the importance of safety in means of transport and on the potentially devastating consequences of production choices driven exclusively by economic savings to the detriment of quality and reliability.
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