At our Phoenix personal injury law firm, we generally help people who have been injured in a car accident with another vehicle. In our cases, airbags usually are a safety device that prevents serious injury or death. However, the consumer advisory regarding airbags issued by NHTSA yesterday is important .

On October 20, 2014, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued an urgent consumer advisory to owners of Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, BMW, and General Motors cars dating back to 2002 – Do not hesitate to have your airbags checked to determine if they have to be replaced!  The defective airbags may explode when they inflate, sending razor-sharp metal shrapnel into the body of the vehicle.  The bags in question were all manufactured by the Takata Corporation.  To date, four people have been killed and dozens have been injured.

Although air bags are estimated to have saved 37,000 lives, they can also be dangerous because they inflated by the equivalent of a solid rocket booster. Sodium azide (NaN3) and potassium nitrate (KNO3) react very produce hot nitrogen gas. This gas inflates the bag, which literally bursts out of the steering wheel or dashboard at approximately 200 miles per hour.

For a complete list of the vehicles involved go to:

http://www.nhtsa.gov/About NHTSA/Press Releases/Vehicle-owners-with-defective-airbags-urged-to-take-immediate-action or www.safercar.gov/vinlookup.

The Ciulla Law Firm, PLLC helps people in personal injury and wrongful death cases.