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Takata Airbag Recall Update: Toyota Adds 5.8 Million More Vehicles to the Tally

Before it began making airbags in 1988, the 1950s saw Takata influence the research on seat belts in passenger vehicles. In 2013, however, all came crashing down for the Japanese company due to a worldwide airbag recall affecting tens of millions of cars.
Airbag 6 photos
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The latest development of the Takata airbag recall involves Toyota. According to a report published by news outlet CBS, the most recent turn of events sees Toyota call back round about 5.8 million vehicles. This report comes days after the NHTSA confirmed the 11th U.S. fatality tied to a Takata airbag inflator.

As per the cited publication, a Toyota spokesperson declared that the manufacturer is aware of one case of non-fatal injury in a crash involving one of the recalled cars. As ever, the said 5.8 million vehicles suffer from the same problem as ever before: the too powerful propellant used to inflate the airbag. Due to the propellant's force, the airbag inflator is prone to rupture, blasting metal fragments at high velocity in the driver and occupant’s faces.

In the United States of America, this and previous recalls involving Takata airbags prompted Toyota to call back a plethora of models. These are the 2010 - 2011 Toyota 4Runner, 2003 - 2011 Toyota Corolla, 2003 - 2008 Toyota Corolla Matrix, 2009 - 2011 Toyota Matrix, 2004 - 2005 Toyota RAV4, 2011 Toyota Sienna, 2002 - 2007 Toyota Sequoia, 2003 - 2006 Toyota Tundra, and 2006 - 2011 Toyota Yaris. With this 5.8-million strong update, the total number of Toyotas equipped with faulty Takata airbags rises to 23.1 million.

On a worldwide scale, the death tally connected to the Takata airbag problem stands at 16 people. What’s more, 17 automakers are affected by the Japanese company’s mess-up, totaling 100 million airbag inflators of which 69 million were fitted to vehicles sold in the United States of America. If you want to check if your car is affected, you can do that by entering your vehicle identification number (VIN) in the search bar featured on the NHTSA's site.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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