General Motors has issued a recall for nearly 1 million of its sports utility vehicles in the United States because of defective airbag inflators that may explode during a crash.
The car-maker submitted a safety recall notification for 994,763 vehicles to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday. The affected models are the Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia vehicles from the 2014 to 2017 model years, which carry airbag inflators manufactured by Tennessee-based ARC Automotive Inc.
Owners of the affected vehicles may have their airbag inflators replaced at a dealership free of charge.
The recall comes as federal regulators are demanding that ARC Automotive Inc. recall 67 million airbag inflators the U.S. because of the risk that they may explode and hurl shrapnel at drivers and passengers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said at least two people have been killed by the defective devices in the U.S. and Canada.
One of those crashes involved a Michigan mother of 10 who was killed in her 2015 Chevrolet Traverse in what otherwise would have been a minor accident. A police report said that metal shrapnel from the airbag inflator hit her neck.
Investigators determined on April 25 the front driver airbag inflator ruptured.
GM said it was still investigating the issue with the assistance of a third-party engineering firm. “GM is taking this expanded field action out of an abundance of caution and with the safety of our customers as our highest priority,” the Detroit automaker said.
GM said it was aware of two prior ruptures of ARC-manufactured airbag inflators in 2015 Chevrolet Traverse vehicles, and GM conducted two earlier small recalls of about 3,000 ARC inflators.
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