Senator urges total recall by Takata

DETROIT — As the Takata air bag saga drags on, concerns are growing that tens of millions of U.S. drivers with cars that haven’t been recalled could be at risk of death or injury from the potentially defective devices.

Regulators last month confirmed that a South Carolina man’s death in December was caused by a driver’s air bag inflator that wasn’t under recall. It was the ninth Takata-related fatality in the U.S.

In a Feb. 10 letter to Mark Rosekind, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., urged the agency to recall all Takata inflators in U.S. cars. He said the agency’s current approach of issuing recalls piecemeal “appears to be confusing many consumers” who wonder if their cars have an unsafe air bag that hasn’t been recalled.

Since 2008, 14 automakers have recalled 24 million vehicles to replace the inflators, which can rupture in a crash, shooting metal shards at the driver and passengers.

Experts say there could be 50 million Takata air bag inflators in cars that have yet to be called back for repairs. For drivers, finding out if their cars have Takata inflators can be tricky. They either have to convince dealers to take apart the car to look, or get automakers to tell them. Some, like GM and Ford, won’t tell. Nissan and Toyota won’t say if they will disclose a Takata inflator. Fiat Chrysler, Mazda, Mercedes and BMW say they’ll tell if asked.

An NHTSA spokesman says the agency doesn’t have the data yet to justify a recall of every Takata inflator. The agency has given Takata until the end of 2018 to solve the problem or issue a blanket recall.