Aug. 21, 2015—U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) called on Takata Corp. on Thursday to recall all vehicles containing the company’s airbags, according to a report by Reuters.
The call for the recall was prompted after an incident in June, when a Takata airbag inflator in a 2015 VW Tiguan ruptured after a collision. This incident did not fit the pattern behind the known Takata ruptures that have been linked to eight deaths and over 100 injuries.
The expanded recall would add to the 32 million U.S. vehicles currently affected by the callbacks. So far, Volkswagen vehicles have not been included in the recalls.
In the incident, the Tiguan’s Takata-made side airbag inflator ruptured after the vehicle hit a deer. The side airbag was the only airbag that deployed, and the driver did not seek medical assistance and no police report was filed a VW spokesman reported, according to Reuters.
The incident is different from the massive recall because it involves the side airbags, not the frontal or driver-side airbags.
The Tiguan is being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as part of an ongoing investigation into the defective Takata airbags.
Takata is cooperating with VW and the NHTSA while investigating the cause of the inflator rupture.
“Driver safety is our top priority, and we have dedicated tremendous resources to testing and researching returned inflators, including retaining leading experts around the world. We continue to share testing data with NHTSA and vehicle manufacturers,” a Takata spokesman said in a statement, according to Reuters.
