This
is one of the many reasons why car owners should have their vehicles
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[Source: MSN Money]
Counterfeit air bags called 'extreme safety risk'
October 10, 2012 2:55 PM ET
By JOAN LOWY
WASHINGTON
(AP) - Thousands of motorists may be driving cars and trucks installed
with dangerous counterfeit bags and they should have them replaced at
their own expense, the Obama administration warned Wednesday.
Most
at risk are motorists who have had their airbags replaced over the past
three years by a repair shop other than a new car dealership, the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officials said.
Only
0.1 percent of the U.S. vehicle fleet — about 250,000 cars on the road —
are makes and models for which counterfeit airbags are known to be
available, NHTSA said. Auto industry officials briefed by the agency
said they were told that tens of thousands of car owners may be driving
vehicles with counterfeit airbags.
In government tests last month
of 11 counterfeit bags, 10 didn't inflate or failed to inflate properly.
In one test, a counterfeit bag shot flames and shards of metal shrapnel
at a crash dummy instead of inflating, said NHTSA Administrator David
Strickland, who showed a video of the test at a news conference.
"It is an extreme safety risk," he said.
NHTSA
is asking car owners to check a government website, www.Safercar.gov,
for information on how to contact auto manufacturer call centers to
learn if their vehicle model is among those for which counterfeit
airbags are known to have been made.
No deaths or injuries have
been tied to the counterfeit bags, NHTSA said. But it's unclear whether
police accident investigators would be able to identify a counterfeit
bag from a genuine one, industry officials said.
About 1.5 million
airbags are deployed each year in police-reported tow-away crashes,
Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, said.
"Airbags save several thousands of lives annually. But they can't save lives if they have not been repaired properly," he said.
NHTSA
has compiled a list of dozens of vehicle makes and models for which
counterfeit airbags may be available, but the agency cautioned that the
full scope of the problem isn't clear yet and the list is expected to
"evolve over time."
If a car model is on the list and has had its
airbags replaced during the past three years by a repair shop other than
a new car dealership, NHTSA is asking owners to take the vehicle into a
dealership or repair shop to be inspected at their own expense to
determine whether the replaced airbags are counterfeit.
Fees for
checking out airbags — a complex and technical process — could run
between $100 to $200, said Bailey Wood, a spokesman for the National
Automobile Dealers Association, said. The cost of replacing a driver's
side center column airbag is $750 to $1,000, he said. Other airbags may
be more, he said. Some types of cars have as many as eight airbags.
The problem isn't the result of a manufacturing defect by automakers and isn't a recall, NHTSA and industry officials said.
"The
bad actor here is the counterfeiters," Wood said. "Because of that, the
cost to have an airbag evaluated and possibly replaced is going to be
borne by the consumer."
The counterfeit bags typically look like
airbags made by automakers and usually include a manufacturer's logo.
Government investigators believe many of the bags come from China, an
industry official said.
The bags are marketed to auto repair and
body shops as the real deal, industry officials said. Auto dealerships
that operate their own body shops are usually required by their
franchise agreements to buy their parts, including airbags, directly
from automakers and therefore are unlikely to have installed counterfeit
bags, industry officials said.
But only 37 percent of auto
dealers have their own body shops, according to the automobile dealers
association. Many consumers whose vehicles have been damaged are
referred by their insurance companies to auto body shops that aren't
affiliated with an automaker.
Consumers who bought replacement
airbags online or who have purchased a used car that may have its
airbags replaced in the past three years were also asked to check
NHTSA's list.
Counterfeiting of a wide variety of auto parts has
long been a well-known problem, industry officials said. But recent
incidents have escalated concern by government officials. In August,
federal agents confiscated nearly 1,600 counterfeit airbags and arrested
a North Carolina auto mechanic, according to a report by the Charlotte
Observer. The mechanic was tied by federal officials to another
counterfeit airbag case last year in Tennessee, the report said.
Dai
Zhensong, a Chinese citizen, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in
federal court in Chattanooga, Tenn., last February to 37 months in
prison for trafficking in counterfeit airbags, according to a statement
made at the time by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Zhensong was a
part owner and manager of the international department of Guangzhou Auto
Parts, which made a variety of auto parts, many of which were
counterfeit, the statement said. In 2010, he traveled from China to
Chattanooga to sell additional counterfeit airbags and other auto parts.
The
counterfeit airbags were manufactured by purchasing genuine auto
airbags that were torn down and used to make molds to produce the
counterfeit bags. Trademark emblems were purchased through Honda,
Toyota, Audi, BMW and other dealerships located in China and affixed to
the counterfeit airbags. The airbags were advertised on the Guangzhou
Auto Parts website and sold for approximately $50 to $70 each, far below
the value of an authentic airbag, the statement said.
About 2,500
counterfeit airbags have been seized by law enforcement authorities so
far this year, John Morton, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, told reporters. Investigations are under way in several
locations around the country, and further arrests and seizures are
expected, he said.
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