Under pressure from US transportation regulators, the Japanese manufacturer Takata on Tuesday acknowledged a safety defect in airbags it supplied to 11 automakers and agreed to a recall of nearly 34 million automobiles in the United States, according to dpa. The recall greatly expands the recall from last year, making it the largest US automotive recall. It is also "probably the most complex consumer safety recall in US history," US Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx said at a briefing. "Takata has agreed to declare that their airbag inflators are defective," Foxx said. "It is recalling these deflators nationwide." Takata chief executive Shigehisa Takada [spelling is correct] said the company was pleased to have reached the agreement with US regulators. It presents "a clear path forward to advancing safety and restoring the trust of automakers and the driving public," Takada said in a statement. The defective part is an inflator that investigators suspect causes the airbags to rupture and spray metal fragments at drivers and passengers when they deploy in an accident. The airbag defect is linked to at least six deaths in the US and Malaysia and numerous injuries. US transportation regulators for months have been pressuring Takata, the world's largest airbag manufacturer, to fully admit to the problem and cooperate with an investigation. Takata previously said its testing showed the problem only occurred in regions of high humidity and said it would only fix the airbags in cars driven in such climates. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) investigation began in 2014. In February the US government fined Takata 14,000 dollars a day for failing to cooperate with the probe and provide documentation and other materials. On Tuesday Foxx said NHTSA and Takata entered into a consent decree requiring Takata to cooperate in the safety agency's investigation as well as any oversight deemed necessary. The investigation still has not identified the root cause of the defect, Foxx said. The airbags are used by most major automakers, including Fiat, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Nissan, Toyota and BMW. Last week Honda recalled 4.89 million vehicles globally, including 1.74 million vehicles in Japan, due to possible defective airbags. Also last week Toyota and Nissan said they would recall 6.56 million cars due to the same problem. Takata faces multiple lawsuits in the US and Canada filed by people who say they were injured by fragments that flew out of the airbags or by the loved-ones of those killed.
