US agency to watch unrecalled Takata inflators after one blows apart, injuring a driver in Chicago

By TOM KRISHER
AP Auto Writer

DETROIT (AP) — U.S. auto safety regulators say they are monitoring data from a group of mostly unrecalled Takata air bag inflators after one of them exploded in a BMW and hurled metal fragments that seriously injured a driver in Chicago. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been investigating the batch of about 30 million inflators since 2021 to see if they exhibit the same traits that forced Takata to recall 67 million of the devices. Takata used volatile ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion to inflate air bags in a crash. But the chemical can deteriorate when exposed to high humidity and temperatures and burn too fast, blowing apart a metal canister and hurling shrapnel. The unrecalled inflators have a moisture absorbing chemical that can hold off the deterioration.