http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/27/business/regulator-delivers-ultimatum-on-recalls-to-airbag-maker-takata.html 2014-11-26 21:57:28 Regulator Delivers Ultimatum on Recalls to Airbag Maker Takata A federal safety agency gave the company until Tuesday to expand the recalls of potentially defective airbags or face legal action and penalties. === In a continuing standoff over the scope of a recall of defective airbags, federal safety regulators have demanded that Takata, the Japanese supplier of automotive parts, expand the recall nationwide beyond a limited geographic area. The The recalls of vehicles with Takata airbags have mostly been limited to two states and two territories associated with high humidity, which can cause the airbags to explode violently when they deploy, sending metal fragments flying. Some automakers, including Honda, have expanded their recalls to other regions as well. “Despite the severe consequences of airbag ruptures and mounting data demonstrating a safety defect, Takata responded that it did not agree with N.H.T.S.A.'s basis for a nationwide recall of driver’s-side airbags,” wrote Frank Borris, the director of the agency’s Office of Defects Investigation. “Takata has not provided any new information to support its position that a regional recall is appropriate, nor has Takata provided any explanation for driver’s-side airbag ruptures that have occurred outside the areas of high absolute humidity.” A week earlier, the safety agency publicly urged a national recall of affected vehicles and the United States Senate held a hearing on the airbags. The agency, which originally agreed to the limited recall in June, said that it learned of an airbag rupture in North Carolina in August in a 2007 In his letter, Mr. Borris said that Takata must submit a report to the agency, identifying the defect in the airbags, regardless of where vehicles are registered or operated. If the company does not supply the information by Tuesday, the agency may proceed to legal steps for forcing a recall, including scheduling a public meeting, and begin to seek civil penalties of as much as $7,000 per violation. A Takata spokesman said that the supplier did not immediately have a comment. At the Senate hearing last week, Hiroshi Shimizu, Takata’s senior vice president for global quality assurance, largely stuck to the position that the recalls should remain regional. “Our best current information supports the view that these regions must be the priority for the replacement of suspect inflaters,” Mr. Shimizu responded to a question from Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts. “I just think you’re plain wrong here,” Mr. Markey said. “I think your company is making a big mistake in not supporting this recall wholeheartedly.” On Monday, two senators pressed Takata in a letter for an extensive list of documents about its airbags, including internal communications and reports and lists of every death and injury that may have been caused by the product and every lawsuit since 2000 that named Takata as a defendant and alleged that an airbag component was defective.