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Missing Airbags Threaten Drivers of Used Cars

Some dealers ditch safety for cash in 'life-and-death scam'

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 13, 2008 1:37 PM CDT

(Newser) – Used-car buyers, beware: Missing or ruined air bags are posing a threat to unsuspecting drivers’ lives, an NPR investigation finds. Some dealerships put greed over safety and sell cars that have been in accidents without replacing the protective pouches. Instead, they may stick faulty air bags back in the car, or jam paper or beer cans in the empty compartment.

Air-bag fraud often means a little extra cash for dealerships, which sometimes charge insurance companies for airbags they don’t replace, or bill customers for bags they promptly return to suppliers unused. “We have a life-and-death scam on our hands,” says a watchdog. But while the practice has killed several drivers, there’s no official tally showing the magnitude of the problem, he adds.

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Neither the federal government nor the insurance industry precisely tracks air-bag data, making the depth of the problem difficult to track.

An NPR investigation found the airbag compartment on used cars stuffed with beer cans and packing peanuts.

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Unfortunately, until the data bubble to the surface and give us a quantitative sense of what this is about, it's always going to be the hidden, silent killer. - Jim Quiggle, Coalition Against Insurance Fraud

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Missing Airbags Threaten Drivers of Used Cars