840,000 Mercedes and Daimlers in Takata airbag recall

[WASHINGTON] German automaker Daimler AG announced Tuesday the recall of some 840,000 Mercedes Benz and Daimler vehicles in the United States equipped with potentially defective Takata airbags.

Daimler said the recall included about 705,000 Mercedes-Benz cars and 136,000 Daimler vans.

It was the latest recall involving Takata airbags, which can rupture and send shrapnel into occupants of a car.

At least 10 deaths, including nine in the United States, have been tied to the faulty airbags. Automakers worldwide have been forced to recall more than 20 million cars to have the airbags replaced.

Investigators suspect that the airbag inflators and the propellant inside can deteriorate, especially in consistently hot and humid conditions, causing them to misfire.

Last week, Japan's Honda recalled 2.2 million cars equipped with Takata airbags at risk of rupturing.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration called the issue in January "a massive safety crisis."

Takata, which has been accused of covering up the problem for years, was fined US$200 million by NHTSA in November for providing inadequate and inaccurate information about the airbags and for failing to recall them quickly once it became aware of the problem.

AFP