Honda Atlas is running a campaign to remind drivers of the importance of airbags asking the owners to bring their selected Honda cars for airbag replacement. For this program, these are the eligible Honda cars:
Honda is urging owners to take their vehicles – if eligible – to a Honda service center and have their airbags inspected. If the vehicle has Takata airbags, Honda will replace these airbags free of cost.
You can also visit the Honda Pakistan website to see if your car is one of the ones with faulty airbag inflators.
A faulty airbag can be very dangerous and lethal. When the airbag has to deploy in case of a collision, if the airbag is faulty and defected, the body of the airbag inflator can explode into tiny bits of metal fragments caused due to the massive pressure inside it.
This explosion will cause metal bits and fragments to strike out of the body injuring the occupant sitting in the respective seat.
Takata’s faulty airbags and their reputation led to this campaign. In 2014, a woman from California died due to Takata’s airbag in a 2005 Honda Accord.
It was a low-speed collision but the car had faulty airbags, “hot metal and plastic shrapnel” shot out of the car which killed the woman. She got injured with severe burns, bruises, and abrasions on her body. This lead to Takata’s downfall and they remained in legal battles till their bankruptcy in June 2017.
Note that other car manufacturers used Takata airbags as well. Nissan, Toyota, Ford, Mazda, and Chrysler are included in the list.
