April 23, 2019—The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is expanding a probe into potentially defective air bags to 12.3 million vehicles and upgrading it to an engineering analysis, which is a step required before it can seek to compel recalls, reported Reuters.
The NHTSA said the air bags were installed in some vehicles from model years 2010-19 sold by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Honda Motor Co, Hyundai Motor Co, Kia Motors Corp, Mitsubishi and Toyota Motor Corp.
The agency opened a preliminary probe in 2018 of about 400,000 vehicles, and said on Tuesday it had reports of two crashes and two injuries related to the defect along with one death in a Toyota vehicle.
The issue could be tied to as many as eight deaths, according to the report.
