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Air bag recall could affect millions of vehicles

DETROIT, MI (MPRN)— General Motors is recalling about a million 2014 through 2017 model sport utility vehicles because the air bag inflators could explode and shower passengers with shrapnel.

But the company responsible for the air bags is refusing to launch a much wider recall effort.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants the company that makes the air bags – ARC Automotive – to recall a total of 67 million air bag inflators officials fear could explode.

Federal officials say the defective air bags caused at least two deaths, including a Michigan driver killed two years ago when an inflator ruptured in a 2015 Chevrolet Traverse.

But ARC Automotive is resisting a widespread recall, arguing the air bag problems are random manufacturing anomalies.

When air bags made by the company Takata suffered similar problems, it forced the largest recall in automotive history and drove Takata into bankruptcy.

At least a dozen automakers use ARC’s air bags, and the recall could conceivably affect about a quarter of all the vehicles on U.S. roadways.