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Big recall over airbag fault

September 9, 2016

General Motors has issued a massive recall due to an airbag-related defect in a number of its models. The callback affects 3.6 million vehicles in the United States and 640,000 sold in other countries.

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General Motors mit US Flagge
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

GM advised Friday that 4.3 million of its cars and trucks be brought in for repairs, saying an electronic fault in some software could cause the airbags to not deploy during an accident.

The problem lay in the vehicles' airbag sensing and diagnostic module software, which would hinder airbag deployment while carrying out diagnostic tests. If such tests were running during an accident, the airbags would not inflate and seatbelt tensioners would not lock up.

GM found out about the fault after an accident on May 17 of this year involving one of its 2014 Silverado trucks in which neither the front-seat airbags nor the tensioners activated.

Only the 2014-2017 model years are affected. They include the Buick LaCrosse and Encore; Chevrolet SS, Spark EV, Corvette, Trax, Caprice, Taho, Suburban and Silverado; GMC Sierra and Yukon; and Cadillac Escalade.

cjc/kd (AFP, dpa)

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