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DETROIT – Shards of metal from an exploding airbag inflator killed the driver of an old Volvo, causing a US recall of up to 54,000 cars, regulators said Saturday.
The inflator was made by auto parts supplier ZF / TRW, but US government documents show that the devices work similarly to the deadly inflators made by Takata.
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it is reviewing data with Volvo on other vehicles equipped with inflators and will decide whether to take further action.
ZF / TRW spokesperson Tony Sapienza said in an email Saturday that he did not know if the same inflators were sold to other automakers.
NHTSA said the ZF / TRW inflator rupture which resulted in death is the only known accident worldwide.
The recall affects Volvo S60 and S80 cars from model years 2001 to 2003. Volvo has said it will replace the driver’s airbag at no cost to customers.
Japanese component maker Takata used ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion to inflate the airbags in the event of an accident. But the chemical can deteriorate over time if exposed to moisture in the air. The blast can blow up a metal container and throw splinters into the cockpit.
At least 26 people have been killed worldwide by inflators, including 17 in the United States.
The problem caused the largest series of car recalls in U.S. history, with at least 63 million inflators recalled. As of September, more than 11.1 million had not been set, according to the US government. Around 100 million inflators worldwide have been recalled.
The NHTSA said on Saturday that ZF / TRW inflators did not use ammonium nitrate to inflate the airbags.
The Volvo recall affects cars sold or registered in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands (Saipan) and the US Virgin Islands.
Volvo claims in documents published by NHTSA that the registration data found about 13,800 of the recalled cars are still in use.
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