Toronto, Ontario — BMW is recalling 44,131 vehicles in Canada—and another 394,000 in the United States—due to the use of Takata airbags that could degrade and explode, causing serious injury to vehicle occupants.
The recall was reported by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Wednesday and then updated on Transport Canada’s website on Thursday of last week.
In the recall notice, BMW said that the issue covers airbag inflators that had been previously recalled, but that then could have had a replacement steering wheel installed with another defective airbag.
In a statement originally emailed to CBC News, the automaker wrote that replacement parts are only needed “if the original steering wheel has been replaced with one containing an airbag module affected by the recall.”
The airbag inflators, manufactured by Japanese automotive parts company Takata, have long been at the centre of the largest recall process to date. CBC further noted that more than 30 deaths and hundreds of injuries have been attributed to the airbags since 2009.
Vehicles in Canada affected by the issue include the BMW Series 1 from the 2005 model year; the BMW Series 3 from the 2006 to 2012 model years; the BMW X3 from the 2004 to 2015 model years; and the BMW X5 from the 2016 model year.
For more information about the recall, click here.
