Blumenthal, Markey Statement on VW Recall of 850,000 Vehicles with Potentially-Lethal Takata Airbags

(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, released the following statement after Volkswagen announced it is recalling approximately 850,000 U.S. vehicles because of potentially-lethal Takata airbags. The recall affects 680,000 VW vehicles from model years 2006-2014, as well as 170,000 Audi vehicles from model years 2005-2014.

“The glacial pace of Takata’s decade-long recall process is confusing to the public and leaves lives in danger. Every consumer deserves to know whether their vehicle could be lethal in a fender-bender. We call on NHTSA to require Takata to publish a list of all makes and models for which they have supplied airbags since 2000, to recall all of these vehicles, and to publish the testing results and failure rates so the public can assess the risk these airbags pose. This latest recall by Volkswagen, which includes models as recent as 2014, is another scary reminder that no car is safe – not even newer cars – when it contains airbags prone to violent explosions."

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