Ford recalling nearly 400,000 trucks due to air bag defect.

ABC World News (1/26, story 12, 0:20, Muir, 5.84M) reported that Ford is “recalling nearly 400,000 Ranger pickups because of driver side air bags made by Takata that can explode and cause serious injury, even death.” ABC says the recall comes after the death of a man in South Carolina was linked to those Takata air bags, the 10th death linked to the air bags.

        The AP (1/26) reports that the recall covers 2004 through 2006 model years manufactured in the US and Canada. Meanwhile, NHTSA “says automakers will recall another 5 million vehicles equipped with faulty inflators made by Takata.” The AP says “some of the recalls are because of the crash that killed Knight, with the rest due to air bags failing in lab tests.” The AP goes on to state that the recall now covers 14 automakers and 24 million vehicles, with NHTSA saying recall numbers are likely to expand. The AP points out that the Rangers were recalled last year due to problems with the passenger air bag inflators.

        USA Today (1/26, Bomey, 5.56M) reports that “NHTSA spokesman Gordon Trowbridge told reporters that before the deadly accident, testing of 1,900 inflators in the Ranger had uncovered no problems.” He also “said Friday that the number of recalled inflators could expand by ‘tens of millions’ if Takata can’t prove that the ammonium-nitrate propellant in the inflators is not responsible for the defect.” USA Today points out that “recalls of Takata vehicles have proceeded slowly, in part because replacement inflators haven’t been readily available” and because “many vehicle owners have ignored recall notices.”