[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15530]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                AIRBAGS

  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, there has been quite a bit in the press 
about defective exploding airbags. This is a part of a steering wheel 
with the airbag deployed. In the steering wheel, the driver would be 
like this with their hands on the steering wheel. When the impact 
occurs and the airbag is deployed, instantly, if you have seen that 
kind of impact on the airbag, because of the chemicals inside of the 
steering wheel, it causes an explosion that comes out of already 
existing holes in the metal that contains the airbag and it deploys the 
airbag like this so that the--in this case, the driver--in the case of 
the passenger, the same, but it is not a steering wheel like this. That 
protects and has saved countless, thousands and thousands of lives. The 
fact is that we now know there are four people in this country who are 
dead. There are a hundred who are injured. That is not including the 
international office, because of the defective airbag that has been 
manufactured by a Japanese manufacturer. What its defect is is that 
instead of the chemicals exploding to inflate the airbag, it explodes 
with such force for all of this that is contained within the steering 
wheel before it explodes. There is metal.
  When the chemical explosion occurs, it is supposed to go through the 
airholes and fill the bag. Instead, what has happened in the explosion, 
it is with such force that some of the metal becomes shrapnel and comes 
through the bag and in effect becomes lethal projectiles that harm 
either the driver or the passenger.
  For example, on this exploded airbag, I want you to see the size of 
the hole that was ripped in this bag here. Here is another one. A hole 
that was ripped. There are holes in other parts of the bag. Obviously 
this isn't supposed to occur.
  As a matter of fact, I visited with a constituent from central 
Florida. This is a firefighter with a young wife and a young child. A 
piece of shrapnel, in this particular constituent's case, came into his 
eye.
  Therefore, in his occupation as a firefighter, he will not be able to 
fulfill the financial support for his family as a firefighter. Four 
people in this country are confirmed dead, and 100 are injured.
  We have a Federal agency that is supposed to be protecting us. It is 
called the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
  Recently, because of the attention brought to this matter, they have 
come out and said they want these recalls, but the recalls first 
started out at about 4.7 million. It has been doubled to 7.8 million. 
It is increasing all the time, and it is expected that it will be in 
the range of 11 million in this country and 16 million recalls 
worldwide.
  Normally, if you could get the recalls done, once it occurs--once the 
defect is known--then the public is protected.
  But it seems like, similarly to some dragging of the feet of 
automobile manufacturers and their parts manufacturers in the past, 
that is what is occurring here. What we are also seeing is a Federal 
agency that in this Senator's opinion has not been right up front, 
forward leaning, and aggressive to protect the public.
  Thus, I have requested of the Secretary of the Department of 
Transportation to get in this and to do several things: First, to make 
sure that all these recalls are happening, and, secondly, if you are a 
person who knows of the recall because the automobile manufacturer has 
sent you a letter, are you going to be wanting to drive around if they 
tell you they can't fix it immediately? Are you going to be wanting to 
drive around in an automobile that could suddenly explode and cover you 
with metal shrapnel, severely injuring or killing you? Of course not.
  So where is the automobile manufacturer with regard to giving a 
loaner until that air bag can be replaced with a safe one or where are 
they with regard to providing a rental car?
  For the automobile company to say we will disable the airbag until we 
can get the proper replacement, that is not a solution because often 
the seatbelt and the airbag are designed to work in conjunction with 
each other to protect the safety of the driver and the passenger. So 
driving around in a disabled airbag is not a solution. The solution is 
prompt replacement of the defective, lethal airbags or, until they can 
be replaced, to give the customer another automobile that is safe.
  Along the way, someone came up with the brilliant idea in the Federal 
agency that they were going to issue just regional recalls under the 
assumption that highway humidity, in fact, is one of the causes. They 
don't know that, but that is one of the suspicious causes. But what 
does a regional recall do for the protection of the public? Aren't we a 
mobile society? If you say we have high humidity in my State of 
Florida, in Texas and in other Southern States, aren't we a mobile 
society in which people in other parts of the country who own 
automobiles come to our States? Of course we are.
  Oh, by the way, how about some States in the north that have high 
humidity in the summer--if, in fact, that is the cause. So to say that 
a solution to the problem is a regional recall is totally ridiculous 
and the Federal regulatory agency should not be issuing these kinds of 
edicts if we are serious about protecting the public.
  I have recommended, in a letter that has been signed by several of 
our colleagues to the Secretary of Transportation, Secretary Foxx, that 
he start imposing the maximum fine allowed by law per day against the 
automobile manufacturers for any days that are missed in replacing the 
defective airbags so that people will not have to drive around in cars 
with this defect.
  While we were home over this recess during the election, I had an 
airbag explode and demonstrate its force. It is severe, and it is 
quick, as it has to be in order to protect the passenger in an 
automobile accident.
  But if that airbag is defectively constructed so that the explosive 
force becomes like a hand grenade exploding and sending pieces of a 
metal into the human body which the very device is supposed to protect, 
then it is time for action. I hope the folks who are manufacturing and 
installing these defective airbags indeed are hearing these words of 
warning.
  I yield the floor, and 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. COBURN. Mr. 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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