1.4 million Honda cars face second recall over air bags

DETROIT - Honda said it will recall 1.39 million Accord and Civic model sedans with potentially faulty front passenger-side air bags made by Japan's Takata Corp.

This will bring to about 2.3 million the number of Accord and Civic sedans with Takata's front passenger-side air bags that have been recalled.

Models affected by the announcement include 2001 to 2005 Civic sedans and 2003 to 2007 Accord sedans sold in the United States.

The Accord and Civic model sedans in this latest recall have already been recalled previously for front driver-side air bags, a Honda spokesman said.

The total number of Honda vehicles recalled, however, did not increase from about 6.3 million as a result of Monday's announcement.

The recall for front driver-side air bags had previously been expanded beyond a regional recall involving states with high humidity. On Monday, the passenger-side air bag recall was expanded to a national scope, Honda said.

As of last week, Honda had replaced 1.99 million inflators in its recalled vehicles. The total number of vehicles in which these inflators were installed was not immediately available.

Some Takata air bags have opened with too much force, sending shrapnel into the vehicle. US safety officials, as well as Takata officials, have said that exposure to humidity over time has been a factor in the erroneous air bag deployment.

Seven people have been killed in Honda cars with Takata air bags, six of them in the US.

The crash in the most recently reported death, of a 22-year-old woman in Louisiana, occurred two days before a recall notice arrived in the mail from Honda.

REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on June 17, 2015, with the headline 1.4 million Honda cars face second recall over air bags. Subscribe