An investigation into an airbag malfunction on a specific Honda car model has suggested that the automobile continues to have issues.
In August 2015, Joanne Yuke was driving her 2006 Honda Odyssey EX with her husband Rick and visiting sister-in-law as passengers during Thanksgiving Day when the side airbags of the vehicle suddenly deployed – even though the car did not collide with anything and was driving under the speed limit.
“There was a very loud bang,” Rick told
CBC. “They just went off. It scared the heck out of me.”
“We sat there for some time just kind of taking into account what had happened. Rick was sitting in the passenger seat — his shoulder was very sore, my head was sore, my ear was ringing terrible,” Joanne recalled.
Honda offered to replace the airbags of the van after the malfunction as a “goodwill gesture,” but another random deployment struck the Yukes just last month.
The second malfunction incident left Rick’s sister with a large bruise on her abdomen.
Following the second malfunction, Honda refused to help the family. The automaker then blamed the driver, modifications to the vehicle, and the gravel road as causes for the deployment.
The Yukes argued that the only modifications they made to their van were additions such as a trailer hitch, a remote starter and interior warmer.
Auto experts told
CBC that such “modifications” should not impact the airbags.
The Yukes attempted to negotiate with Honda Canada, asking if they could trade in the van and pay a few thousand dollars more for another used vehicle. The agreement did not transpire.
“We need a vehicle that can hold our family, keep them safe, I would never ever have our family be in that vehicle again. Never,” Joanne said.
CBC investigated the random airbag deployment, and found that although Honda had issued a recall for the Odyssey, the Yuke’s van was not among the vehicles recalled.
Transport Canada remarked that it has received other complaints about the same series (specifically, 2005-2008) Honda Odyssey.
Investigators with
CBC also obtained a diagnostics report completed by Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) following the first airbag inflation incident. The insurer told the Yukes it would not pay for repairs because no collision occurred.
An expert who assessed the report explained that the accidental deployment could be due to a defect in the van’s safety system.
“The software misinterpreted the information coming into the vehicle, deployed the airbags when it shouldn’t have … This is not unique. I’ve seen this problem before myself,” said accident reconstruction expert Peter Keith.
“Clearly they are not meant to deploy like that,” he said. “They are only meant to deploy if you’re having a front collision, a side collision, a rollover, that was not the circumstances which happened with them driving straight down a gravel road.”
Honda has responded to
CBC’s findings, saying that the “the side curtain airbag system deployed as designed.”
The automaker expounded that the airbag systems are “sensitive to driving conditions that emulate an impending vehicle rollover and/or side impact. The likelihood of generating these driving conditions is amplified when driving on dirt or loose gravel roads.”
Honda also added that the second deployment was not related to any vehicle or system malfunction, but due to “the customer’s distinctive driving habits on their local road conditions.”
The company would not submit a copy of its diagnostic report for verification.
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