After getting a push from safety regulators, Fotor Motor Co. has expanded its recall of its popular F-150 pickups, targeting another 1.2 million vehicles whose airbags could deploy without warning.
As Reuters reports, regulators have worried that the airbag deployment, which is accompanied by a sound comparable to a gunshot, could cause startled drivers to lose control of their vehicles. The problem is triggered by an electrical short in a component in the steering wheel.
The trucks in question are F-150s from 2004 through 2006. Also included in the recall are 16,000 Lincoln Mark LT vehicles.
In February, Ford agreed to recall 144,000 of the F-150 pickups, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that a much larger order was needed. Some critics accused Ford of trying to preempt the recall process with the smaller order, to cut the costs inevitable in a larger recall.
As USA Today noted, NHTSA said at the time that it had reports about 60 injuries from unexpected air bag deployments in those vehicles.
The F-Series trucks, of which F-150 is the biggest segment, are the nation’s top-selling vehicles.
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