ATLANTA — If you drive a car made by Fiat Chrysler, your airbag could be putting you at risk.
Stellantis, the parent company of Fiat, joined 13 other automakers issuing a “Do Not Drive” warning.
Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray has been looking into this issue for years.
In 2015 a victim told Channel 2 Action News how he was lucky to be alive.
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“I reached up to try to see where the blood was coming from and my finger went inside of my throat,” Cedric Walton said at the time. “That’s when I knew I had a major problem.”
Across the country, thousands of potentially explosive Takata airbags have not been fixed, and they’re still on the streets.
Fiat Chrysler just added 225,000 vehicles to the “Do Not Drive” warning.
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“Right now, Fiat Chrysler says all vehicles that they have with a Takata recall have been escalated to a do not drive warning,” Em Nguyen of Carfax said. “So that’s a 225,000 lift in vehicles that are not meant to be driven under any circumstance.”
Those recalls targeted airbags in tens of millions of vehicles across the United States after at least 28 people were killed.
The defective Takata airbag explosions also injured hundreds more.
“As these cars get older, that risk increases over time as well,” Nguyen said. “These are critical recalls, and you can get them replaced free at any dealership or manufacturer.”
In total, Carfax told Gray there were 164,600 vehicles with faulty Takata airbags still on Georgia roads.
This new warning pushes drivers to repair any airbags still in Fiat Chrysler vehicles.
Nguyen said Fiat Chrysler is urging people to fix it as soon as possible as the danger is more immediate now than ever before.
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