Community leaders demand call-to-action over Takata air bag recall

HOUSTON – Houston civic and community leaders held a press conference 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall after the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee hearing on local response to the Takata air bag recalls.

The group says Houston is one of the country's higher-risk cities for serious injury or because of defective air bag inflators. Yet recall completion rates in Houston lag behind the rest of the nation and suggest that more awareness and action are needed to protect local communities, the group says.

Tens of millions of air bag inflators in the U.S. are under recall because of a dangerous defect that causes the chemical propellant in the inflator to degrade over time, making it more explosive and increasing the potential for shrapnel to spray toward the head and neck of the vehicle's occupants upon deployment.

The higher-risk inflators are in certain 2001-2003 Honda and Acura vehicles:

• 2001-2002 Honda Civic
• 2001-2002 Honda Accord
• 2002-2003 Acura TL
• 2002 Honda CR-V
• 2002 Honda Odyssey
• 2003 Acura CL
• 2003 Honda Pilot

To read more from the NHTSA, click here.

Safercar.Gov issued a list of the Takata airbag recalls.  The list includes:

• BMW
• FCA (Chrysler)
• Daimler Trucks North America
• Daimler Vans USA LLC
• Ford
• General Motors (GM)
• Honda
• Mazda
• Mercedes-Benz
• Mitsubishi
• Nissan
• Ram
• Subaru
• Toyota
• Volkswagen (VW)

Click here for more information.