April 25, 2015
U.S safety regulators to investigate the Subaru models for air bags operations
U.S safety regulators have launched an investigation against
Subaru Impreza saloon models to re-test them against the safety standards. Subaru Impreza models from 2012 to onward will be scrutinised for airbag issues. These tests are administrated by the NHTSA on the reports of highway traffic administration. Authorities have conducted a survey and had received a response from 26 Subaru owners. They replied that the Impreza occupant detection system failing to operate or sense the passenger in the seat.
System unexpectedly turns the passenger side airbag off when the seat is occupied. This could increase the injury risks during an accident. The investigation involved almost 33,500 cars from U.S.
The NHTSA also mentioned that the Japanese automaker has published a technical service bulletin in May 2012 to address similar issues regarding passenger airbags. The U.S safety agency said that the bulletin is providing the bases to open the preliminary testing and evaluation on the selected models.
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Subaru official said on this issue that the automaker expects to receive a request for information about the issue from NHTSA within few days. He further said that the company has had no reports of any accident or any injuries because of or related to the airbag issue. A preliminary investigation is just the initiation of evaluation and the first step of the entire process. It can lead to the recalls or maintenance if the regulators ask for. It will depend on the findings of the re-testing of models that Subaru need to address this issue seriously or not.
