WASHINGTON — There’s a high likelihood that you’re driving with a dangerous airbag in your car. New numbers say hundreds of thousands of people in our area are still driving with Takata airbags, subject of the largest recall in American history.
"There is huge, huge risk involved," recall special administrator Patrick Juneau said. "People ought to treat it like it’s a doctor giving you medical advice to take care of your body."
Faulty airbag inflators killed more than a dozen people, but the fix to protect you and your family is free.
In The District, 20,000 drivers need to get fixes done according to safeairbags.com. That’s on top of 300,000 in Maryland and 400,000 in Virginia.
Sixty-million cars were impacted by the recall that now includes more than two-dozen different car brands.
Juneau said those overseeing the recall are aggressively trying to reach out to those driving behind what he called a "grenade with the pin pulled" in their cars. Drivers have received mailers, phone calls, emails and social media posts, but Juneau said you simply shouldn't wait any longer.
You can find out if your car needs to be fixed here. You can enter your car’s vehicle identification number or simply enter your make and model. You can even make an appointment to make fixes straight from this website. The idea is to make this easy to do and easy to pay for.