US Investigates Fatal Chinese Counterfeit Airbag Incidents

According to reports, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating seven incidents involving aftermarket airbag components from a Chinese manufacturer that failed and ruptured during collisions, resulting in five fatalities, including a young Florida mother of two.

NHTSA has linked Jilin Province Detiannuo Safety Technology, also known as DTN Airbag, to five incidents, comprising three deaths that occurred last year and two fatal incidents this year. One of the fatalities took place in July.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued a stark warning: "My message to the auto repair industry is clear: whoever is bringing this faulty Chinese equipment into the country and installing them is putting American families in danger and committing a serious crime."

He further urged the motor repair sector to remain vigilant for the defective airbags.

Regulators and investigators acknowledge the difficulty in determining precisely how many of these counterfeit airbag components have been installed in vehicles across the United States. Imitations can appear identical to genuine devices. Whilst some counterfeits sell for as little as $100 each, an authentic airbag module can cost upwards of $1,000. Motorists requiring airbag replacement should seek manufacturer-certified components, according to car manufacturers and regulators.

The Automotive Anti-Counterfeiting Council (A2C2) reported in June that the sale of counterfeit parts continues to rise, with an upward trend following the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Most of the counterfeits that we're seeing are being facilitated through online sales," said Bob Stewart, A2C2 president and GM's aftermarket service support and brand protection manager. "The original seller of the product usually originates from the Asia area—China, Hong Kong, Taiwan—through third-party facilitators."

Airbags remain amongst the parts frequently counterfeited, and are particularly difficult to distinguish from legitimate ones, Stewart noted.

He explained that whilst A2C2 doesn't conduct extensive testing overall, they have concentrated on counterfeit airbag testing over the past two years.

A video produced by A2C2 featuring side-by-side crash tests demonstrates that counterfeit airbags fail to deploy properly compared to genuine OEM airbags. The counterfeit bag burst apart and failed to protect the driver from significant impact.

In July 2024, NHTSA urged used car buyers and owners to be aware of "cheap, substandard" replacement airbag inflators that can cause death or serious injury in a crash.

Three people had been killed and two suffered life-altering, disfiguring injuries in the previous nine months due to faulty aftermarket replacement airbag inflators, according to NHTSA.

In all five cases, the vehicles had previously been involved in a crash, and their original equipment airbags were replaced with defective, substandard inflators—in most cases, confirmed to have been manufactured overseas, NHTSA stated.

Several months earlier, a lawsuit was filed regarding the Florida mother's death. It alleges that Destiny Byassee was killed in a 12 June 2023 collision by a counterfeit driver-side airbag made by DTN when it "detonated like a grenade and shot metal and plastic shrapnel throughout the vehicle cabin."

The lawsuit states that Jilin Province Detiannuo Safety Technology Co. designs, manufactures, sells, distributes, and ships counterfeit airbags to the United States, and that Byassee's 2020 Chevrolet Malibu was equipped with one by Jumbo Automotive and Haim Levy, the shop's owner.

In 2022, the vehicle was involved in a collision that caused the front driver-side airbag and front driver-side seatbelt pretensioner to deploy. "The damage to the subject Chevy Malibu from the crash was so significant that the vehicle should have been classified as a total loss, issued a salvage title, and removed from service," the lawsuit states.

"After being involved in a crash that caused the subject Chevy Malibu's front driver-side airbag and seatbelt pretensioner to deploy, the front driver-side airbag module and the front driver-side seatbelt pretensioner must be removed and replaced with new components that comply with federal standards and the manufacturer's designed specifications for the vehicle."

Instead, the Malibu was sold to Drivetime through Manheim Auto Auction, and Jumbo Automotive was hired to repair the vehicle before it was resold to Byassee, according to the complaint.

The case remains pending in Florida's Broward County Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Court.