Huge air bag recall follows years of denial: Our view

Car owners who learned this week of the biggest auto safety recall in U.S. history want to know three things about the 34 million Takata air bags: Is my car affected? If so, how long will it take to get it fixed? And how much risk am I facing in the meantime?

The answers look like this: Best case, it will take days for 11 automakers to even identify all the vehicles involved. It will take years — yes, years — before all the defective air bags are replaced. And, while you wait, the chances that your air bag will explode appear incredibly small.

Of the 34 million air bags that Takata identified for recall, about 1.2 million have deployed on the roads and, of those, 84 "ruptured," Takata reported this week. That's about one exploding air bag in every 400,000 on the road.

Of course, even one death caused by a defective air bag, a device intended to save lives, is one too many — which is why the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should keep the pressure on Takata and carmakers to move quickly on the belated recall.

This week's action by NHTSA comes after years of denial and foot-dragging by the manufacturer and the safety agency. Had they moved more quickly, six deaths and dozens of injuries in the USA linked to the faulty air bags might have been prevented. And automakers might have stopped installing defective air bags in their cars. Instead, starting in 2008, Takata and its customers were allowed to carry on glacial, piecemeal recalls.

Initially, Takata blamed the ruptures on foul-ups at a plant in Moses Lake, Wash., and a different problem at a plant in Mexico. By last June, as the recalls increased into millions, Takata blamed exposure to "high levels of absolute humidity" in states where cars are driven. It agreed to broader recalls, but only in areas such as Florida and Hawaii.

The limited action made no sense. Drivers — including an Oklahoma teenager and a mother returning with her children from Christmas shopping in Virginia — died in incidents linked to exploding air bags in states not touched by the recalls.

By the end of 2014, Congress got tough, grilling Takata and car executives at hearings. The safety agency demanded a nationwide recall and started fining Takata $14,000 a day for not cooperating.

Even this week, NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said that the "root cause" of the ruptures is still unknown, but that "there are hints." Those hints ought to point to a solution. While Takata and NHTSA might not know precisely why the propellant inside some Takata air bags is degrading, they know that degraded propellant burns too hot, creates pressure and ruptures, sending shrapnel through the bag. Other air bag makers have not had such problems, so finding the proper solution should not be that hard.

NHTSA is smart to want to do its own tests on replacement bags and not simply take Takata's word that they're safe. Because the process will be slow, drivers will continue to face a tiny risk. But the most heartening news out of the recall is that the nation's car safety watchdog finally learned how to bark.

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