Honda recalls 1.39m cars with passenger-side Takata air bags

[DETROIT] Honda Motor Co Ltd on Monday said it will recall 1.39 million Accord and Civic model sedans with potentially faulty front passenger-side air bags made by Japan's Takata Corp.

This will bring to about 2.3 million the number of Honda cars with front passenger-side air bags made by Takata that have been recalled, the automaker said.

Models affected by the Monday announcement include the 2001 to 2005 Civic sedans and 2003 to 2007 Accord sedans sold in the United States.

The Accord and Civic model sedans in this latest recall have already been recalled previously for front driver-side air bags, a Honda spokesman said.

The total number of Honda vehicles recalled, however, did not increase from about 6.3 million as a result of Monday's announcement.

The recall for front driver-side air bags had previously been expanded beyond a regional recall involving states with high humidity. On Monday, the passenger-side air bag recall was expanded to a national scope, Honda said.

As of last week, Honda had replaced 1.99 million inflators in its recalled vehicles. The total number of vehicles these inflators were installed in was not immediately available.

Some Takata air bags have opened with too much force because of, sending shrapnel into the vehicle. US safety officials as well as Takata officials have said that exposure to humidity over time has been a factor in the incorrect air bag deployments.

Seven people have been killed in Honda cars with Takata air bags, six of them in the United States.

The crash in the most recently reported death, of a 22-year-old woman in Louisiana, occurred two days before a recall notice arrived in the mail from Honda, according to Kenneth St. Pé, the attorney for the woman's family.

Honda said its dealers have been replacing air bag inflators at a rate of 50,000 per week, and that the pace of air bag inflators replaced will accelerate.

REUTERS