Toyota latest automaker in air bag recall

Japanese automaker Toyota is the latest to recall vehicles for faulty airbags.

According to a number of online reports, the recall affects approximately 2.9 million vehicles. Affected are 2011 through 2019 Corolla sedans, 2011 through 2013 Matrix hatchbacks, 2012 through 2018 Avalon sedans, and 2013 through 2018 Avalon Hybrid sedans.

The problem reportedly involves airbag control units, which may fail to interpret or receive the correct signals from crash sensors and fail to deploy airbags and tighten seatbelts in a crash. Toyota was quoted as saying this problem is more likely to happen during certain types of crashes, including underride crashes, in which the front of a vehicle wedges beneath the rear of another vehicle.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation has identified two “substantial frontal crash events,” including one fatality, involving Toyota Corolla sedans that may be related to the recall condition.

This announcement follows a NHTSA investigation into the airbag control unit, which was manufactured by a company then called TRW and now known as ZF-TRW. These parts have also been used in vehicles from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mitsubishi and Toyota.