Urgent warning over Toyota cars that can ‘shoot sharp metal fragments’ and kill drivers or passengers – as owners are told to immediately ‘stop driving’ them, are you affected?

Toyota has issued an urgent ‘do not drive’ advisory for 61,000 vehicles fitted with dangerous Takata airbags, which can explode and hurl ‘sharp metal fragments’ at motorists.

The voluntary recall will affect 50,000 Toyotas, including the 2003-2004 Corolla, 2003-2004 Corolla Matrix and 2004-2005 RAV4.

Also covered are 11,000 2003 and 2004 Pontiac Vibes, which are essentially the same car as the Matrix and made in the same California factory.

“If the airbag deploys, a component inside it is more likely to explode and throw sharp metal fragments, which could cause serious injury or death to the driver or passengers,” Toyota said in a statement.

Airbags from Japanese manufacturer Takata have been linked to 30 deaths worldwide, 26 of them in the US, including that of Ford owner Hayden Jones Jr.

Toyota on Monday issued a “do not drive” advisory for vehicles equipped with the infamous Takata airbags. Pictured is a 2003 Corolla, one of the affected models

The voluntary recall will affect 50,000 models, including the 2003-2004 Corolla, 2003-2004 Corolla Matrix and 2004-2005 RAV4 (pictured)

Toyota and Pontica said owners should contact a local dealer instead of taking the cars in for repairs. Dealers offer options such as mobile repair, towing the car to a dealer or picking up and delivering the vehicle.

It’s been a busy week for Toyota so far. The advice was announced yesterday – and today the company was forced to apologize for alleged cheating in engine testing, while also reporting that it retained its status as the world’s top carmaker in 2023.

Takata is now bankrupt, but more than 100 million of its products have ended up in vehicles from more than a dozen automakers.

Toyota suggested its 20-year-old vehicles are only now caught up in the Takota airbag drama because they contain a part that can fail with age. It said it will replace the airbags in affected vehicles free of charge.

More than 67 million Takata airbag inflators have been recalled over the past decade, making this the largest auto safety recall in history.

Toyota said the RAV4 recall affects the driver’s airbag, while the other recalls affect only the front passenger airbag.

For some Corolla and Corolla Matrix models, certain vehicles are also involved in a second recall, which could cause the airbag to deploy even without an accident.

There have been previous ‘Do Not Drive’ warnings issued by other automakers for vehicles with older Takata airbag inflators after fatal crashes.

A deployed Takata-manufactured airbag is seen on the driver’s side of a 2007 Dodge Charger in a recycled car parts lot in Detroit

Takata is now bankrupt, but more than 100 million products have ended up in vehicles from more than a dozen automakers

Chrysler parent company Stellantis in July advised 29,000 owners of 2003 Dodge Ram pickups to immediately stop driving after a fatal incident involving a Takata airbag.

In 2022, Stellantis urged owners of 276,000 other cars to stop driving after three other deaths linked to the bags were reported that year.

Honda similarly recalled 8,200 Acura and Honda vehicles last February after the airbag-related death of the driver of a 2002 Accord in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Honda alone has reported 17 American deaths and more than 200 injuries due to the Takata pump rupture.

Ford Rangers have also been recalled – and linked to the death of Hayden Jones Jr.

When Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrived at a crash scene in the Panhandle this summer, they found a 23-year-old Navy officer dead behind the wheel with neck wounds that initially appeared consistent with a possible shooting.

An officer later notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the injuries resulted from the deployment of an airbag in the 2006 Ford Ranger pickup during the crash in Pensacola in July.

Although the NHTSA is investigating and has not yet made a final decision, Hayden Jones Jr.’s family says. that there is sufficient evidence that death was caused by an exploding Takata airbag. It would be the twentieth death in the United States – and six years after the start of a recall for that vehicle model.

The NHTSA recall notices for the 2006 Ford Ranger underscore the urgency, saying owners should not drive these vehicles “unless you go directly to a dealer to have them repaired.”

Ford says it notified the vehicle’s owner of the recall – even going to the owner’s home to try to schedule repairs – but the Jones family says it never received a recall notice from the manufacturer and filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

Cases like these, where necessary repairs never happen, show that the system is broken, says William Wallace, safety attorney for Consumer Reports. He said the recall system is weak in part because it relies heavily on owners staying abreast of recall notices.