[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 157 (Monday, October 26, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7483-S7484]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TAKATA AIRBAG RECALL

  Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I rise today to speak about the Takata 
airbag recall and the continued need for urgency in this area.
  Last week the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 
announced that they currently had--this figure will blow your mind--19 
million vehicles and 23 million airbags under recall. So far, the 
completion rates for this recall are not very good. There is a national 
completion rate of some 22 percent, and for States such as Florida 
where there is high heat and humidity--that is suspected as part of the 
reason the components break down--the completion rate is just under 30 
percent, meaning that people are not taking their cars in to fix the 
problem that caused the recall in the first place.
  Takata started running ads through the print media and social media, 
and Honda is running ads to get consumers to a dealer to replace their 
defective airbags. I am also aware that to boost replacement inflators, 
three other airbag manufacturers are helping to manufacture them.
  So this Senator wants to take this opportunity to state that wherever 
this message can be delivered to consumers, you better take your car if 
it is under recall and get it in to the dealer in order to get a 
replacement airbag; otherwise, you are walking around with, in effect, 
a grenade in the middle of your steering wheel or dashboard.
  Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to show a number of items in 
the Senate to illustrate what I am talking about with the airbags.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. NELSON. To Members of the Senate, this is a deflated airbag that 
has already exploded. If you can see, this part is the center of the 
steering wheel. In this case, this happens to be a Honda; here is the 
letter ``h.'' This would be sitting right in front of you in the 
steering wheel. When you have an accident, if it is of sufficient 
impact, it is going to cause the airbag to inflate. This is designed as 
a lifesaver. This explosive device inside the airbag, and the gas 
compound in there is ammonium nitrate. If it is defective, when the 
explosion occurs, the hot gases that are released from the compound 
come out through these little holes around the side, and that inflates 
the airbag. But what has happened and has caused almost 20 million cars 
to be recalled is that the hot gases are exploding in this device with 
such force that it is causing the metal to break and come out in the 
inflated bag with such force, tearing through the bag, as this 
particular bag shows--it has a big hole in it. Here is the hole where 
the metal came out. It is like a grenade exploding in front of you, in 
your steering wheel, with shrapnel going into the people who are 
driving or who are in the passenger seat with the dashboard airbag. We 
are finding out now that a few months ago there was the explosion of 
side airbags in some of the cars, in the doors. Lo and behold, that is 
throwing out shrapnel as well.
  I want to show the Senate what it is like when these inflators 
explode. This is an inflator that was inside the device I just showed 
you. This photograph is a blowup by the Battelle Institute for the 
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This is a blown-up 
photograph of the inflator starting to inflate. What it is supposed to 
do is shoot the gases out here, which inflates the bag I showed you, 
but look what has happened. It is being ruptured in the side, throwing 
out metal. This is what it looks like under very fast photography. 
Metal fragments are coming out when it should have been just gas coming 
out to inflate the bag.
  This is what one of those pieces of metal looks like. It is a shard 
of metal that is part of the inflator. Can you imagine that hitting you 
in the neck? Well, that is what happened to one of my citizens in 
Florida, in the Orlando area. She ran into a fender bender in an 
intersection at a traffic light. Lo and behold, when the police got 
there, they found her slumped over the wheel, and they thought it was a 
homicide because her neck was slashed. They found out that what 
happened was a piece of metal like this had lacerated her neck and cut 
her jugular vein.
  Another one of my constituents, a fireman--a big, hulking guy, the 
kind who will pick you up, if you are disabled and in a house that is 
burning down, and carry you out safely to save you--well, he won't be a 
fireman anymore because one of those metal fragments hit him in the eye 
and he is blind in one eye.
  Those are just two incidents of scores across the country, of which 
there have been a handful of deaths.
  If a jagged piece of metal can cause severe injury because it is 
coming at you at high speed, don't you think that if you have one of 
these vehicles that are under recall, you had better get it to the 
dealer to have it replaced?
  Check to see if your car is under recall because sometimes people 
don't get it in the mail or they don't open the mail. Go to 
www.safercar.gov and put in your car's vehicle identification number--
the VIN number--and then you will see if your car is on a recall list.
  Those that are on the recall list that I mentioned earlier 
unfortunately may not be the last to be recalled. The New York Times 
just reported that a study commissioned by Takata with Penn State 
University shows larger issues with the use of ammonium nitrate in the 
airbag inflators. In addition, there was another incident just this 
past June where a Takata side airbag ruptured in a relatively new 2015 
Volkswagen. And just a week ago, General Motors recalled vehicles that 
also had defective Takata side airbags. It raises the question, are any 
of the Takata inflators safe?
  Last week Senator Thune and I sent a letter to Takata asking for 
additional documents and information regarding these side airbags. We 
also asked more questions about the use of ammonium nitrate. Also, the 
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that it may 
expand its recall to all the model year vehicles with Takata airbags.
  NHTSA must use all of its tools under the law to maximize consumer 
protection. These potential hand grenades, stored in the steering wheel 
or dashboard, must get off the road. The

[[Page S7484]]

American driving public cannot afford any more wasted time.
  Don't we think these corporations that are causing this outrageous 
situation that has killed seven people in the United States and 
severely injured dozens more--don't we think that they ought to be held 
accountable? If executives at Takata knew about their defective 
products, if they knew that and did nothing, or worse, if they covered 
it up, then they ought to go to jail. Not another fine, not another 
settlement, somebody ought to be going to jail. Lying about a danger of 
this magnitude is a criminal act.
  We have a crisis of consumer confidence in the vehicle-safety area. 
Certainly that has been demonstrated with these Takata airbags.
  What about General Motors' misinformation, lack of information, and 
outright deception about the defective ignition switches? And now what 
about Volkswagen's deliberate efforts to lie about--and to cover up--
emissions from its diesel vehicles?
  A few weeks ago I sent a letter to Chairwoman Edith Ramirez of the 
Federal Trade Commission, asking them to crack down on Volkswagen's 
unfair and deceptive practices in connection with its ``clean diesel'' 
vehicle claims, and today I received a response. The Chairwoman of that 
Commission told me they are investigating the claims against 
Volkswagen, along with the Department of Justice and the Environmental 
Protection Agency. In her response she said: ``No reasonable consumer 
would knowingly purchase a vehicle that he or she could not legally 
drive.''
  I agree. Don't we all agree? So it is time to get tough and to hold 
these folks and these corporations accountable.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. TESTER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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