Report: Airbag maker found defect in product, but didn't tell regulators

Report: Airbag maker found defect in product, but didn't tell regulators
(Image credit: iStock)

Two former employees of Japanese airbag manufacturer Takata say that in 2004, the company first heard about an airbag rupturing and releasing metal debris that injured a driver, but after conducting tests decided against telling federal safety regulators.

The employees told The New York Times that the company went to scrap yards and found 50 airbags to use in tests. Two of the airbags cracked, which can cause a rupture. Engineers quickly began to come up with ways to repair the airbags, but executives ignored the report and and told technicians to delete the testing data from computers and destroy the tested airbags, the employees said.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.