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Recently, during the summer of 2018, Kia Motors America started recalling more than 507,000 vehicles with faulty airbag sensors and seatbelt pretensioners, the latter the mechanism that tightens seatbelts. Kia announced that the airbags and seatbelts in the recalled vehicles may fail to respond during front-end collisions because of short circuits in the airbag control units.

In March of 2018, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more commonly known as the NHTSA, began an investigation of 425,000 potentially defective airbag systems in Kia and Hyundai vehicles. Reports of airbags failing to deploy in six accidents triggered this investigation as these accidents resulted in six injuries and four deaths.

The NHTSA reported that four accidents involved 2011 Hyundai Sonata vehicles and the other two involved a 2012 and 2013 Kia Forte. The airbag control units deploy the airbags and seatbelt pretensioners during front-end collisions. Any short-circuiting of the control unit increases the likelihood of the airbag failing to deploy and therefore increases the risk of death or catastrophic injuries. In three of these crashes, airbags failed to deploy as a result of electrical overstress in the airbag control units.

Hyundai recalled more than 580,000 2011 to 2013 Sonatas along with 2011 to 2012 Sonata Hybrid vehicles. Kia and Hyundai dealerships must offer free repairs for vehicles affected by either recall. Kia’s recall affects the following vehicle models:

  • 2010 to 2013 Kia Forte sedans
  • 2011 to 2012 Kia Optima Hybrid sedans
  • 2011 to 2012 Kia Sedona minivans
  • 2011 to 2013 Kia Optima sedans

To determine if your vehicle is subject to recall, use this helpful NHTSA link.