JANUARY 27, 2012 AT 2:52 PM
Chrysler cooperating in Jeep Liberty air bag probe
Washington- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is upgrading an investigation into nearly 390,000 Jeep Liberty SUVs for reports of inadvertent air bag deployments.
NHTSA said Friday it had upgraded its investigation into 386,873 2002-2003 Jeep Liberty models after identifying 87 reports of air bag inadvertent deployment that have resulted in 50 alleged injuries.
The injuries include burns, cuts and bruises to the upper body. About half - 42 of the 87 incidents -- involved the driver front air bag, and the remaining 45 involved both the driver and passenger front air bags inadvertently deploying without a crash.
Chrysler said it was working with NHTSA.
"We are cooperating fully with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration with this engineering analysis on 2002-2003 Jeep Wrangler models to determine the root cause of this condition," Chrysler spokesman Vince Muniga.
Some occurred at vehicle startup; others took place when the vehicle was being operated. Some owners noted that the air bag warning light had illuminated, or illuminated intermittently, and that this occurred just prior to the air bag deployment. Others said they did not observe any illumination of the air bag light. Chrysler says an electronic circuit that controls air bag deployment fails, possibility caused by a transient voltage spike.
Chrysler is identifying potential root causes of the component's failure; no inadvertent airbags have deployed in vehicles manufactured after March 19, 2003.
NHTSA has investigated numerous vehicle model inadvertent airbag deployments in recent years.
Under government pressure, Ford Motor Co. in April agreed to recall 1.2 million more F-150 pickup trucks after more than 200 reports of sudden, unexpected air-bag deployments. In total, Ford recalled about 1.5 million vehicles to address the issue.
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Source: The Detroit News
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