The owners of 2003 Dodge Ram pickups are being urged to stop driving the vehicles immediately after a person was killed in May when a Takata airbag inflator in one of the models exploded.
The “Do Not Drive” warning was sent to 29,000 owners of the 2003 model vehicles.
The fatality in May is the first reported for the model involving a Takata passenger-side bag, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a statement.
“If you have one of these vehicles, DO NOT DRIVE it until the recall is completed and your defective airbag is replaced,” NHTSA said.
Last fall, Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, urged owners of 276,000 other older U.S. vehicles to immediately stop driving after three other crash deaths tied to faulty Takata airbag inflators were reported in 2022.
The NHTSA said Tuesday that the 2003 Ram 1500 involved in the fatality was one of 385,686 recalled in 2015. Roughly 84,000 of these pickup trucks are unrepaired “and occupants of these unrepaired vehicles are at grave risk of serious injury or death,” NHTSA said in a statement.
Twenty-five people have died to date in the U.S. because of exploding airbag inflators, the NHTSA said. More than 67 million Takata airbag inflators have been recalled in the United States in the past 10 years.
Stellantis said Tuesday that there are still an estimated 233,000 of last year’s recalled 276,000 Chrysler and Dodge vehicles that are still unrepaired.
Vehicle owners who prefer talking to the manufacturer directly can call the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ Takata Call Center at 833-585-0144 or go to the manufacturer’s website.
For Takata information for specific vehicle manufacturers, please click here. For more information from NHTSA on the Takata airbag safety recall, click here.
