DETROIT — A business that makes air-bag inflators that have blewup in 8 occurrences including 2 deaths and 7 injuries argued Tuesday that it can’t state for sure whether its inflators may cause additional such events.
In a reply to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the business, ARC Automotive of Knoxville, Tennessee, stated that even sticking to market quality requirements cannot totally remove the threat of periodic failures in which the air-bag inflators may blowup and spew shrapnel.
NHTSA has required that ARC recall 67 million inflators in motorist and guest front air bags from at least a lots carmanufacturers. Neither ARC nor the car market hasactually launched a complete list of lorry designs with the kind of air bag inflators that have tookoff. But at least 33 million automobiles on the roadway are thought to include them.
ARC has declined to concern a full-blown recall, setting the phase for a possible court battle. The business keeps that no security flaw exists, that NHTSA’s need is based on a hypothesis rather than technical conclusions and that the firm has no authority to order a parts producer to reveal remembers.
“Even with proper market requirements and efforts by producers to decrease the dangers of failures, the production procedures might not totally remove the threat of periodic or separated failures,” ARC composed in its reply.
The business more argued that the federal motor automobile security act “does not need lorries and devices to neverever experience a failure in the field. Rather the Safety Act looksfor to safeguard the public versus unreasonable threats.”
In reaction to another concern, ARC acknowledged that it hasn’t informed any clients that its inflators are anticipated to periodically blowup. But it stated that throughout NHTSA’s eight-year examination into the inflators, air bag makers, carmanufacturers and the federalgovernment haveactually been notified of any unusual ruptures on the roadways.
“The danger of production abnormalities cannot be totally ruled out in any mas