DETROIT – Federal safety officials are issuing an urgent new warning after tests found some of the Takata airbags may be even more prone to deadly malfunctions than previously known.
Brand new data has federal officials desperately trying to reach owners of older cars.
"With this new data, we know how bad it could really be. Literally flipping a coin in a crash, you don't know if you could end up having the shrapnel coming at you," said Mark Rosekind, PhD and NHTSA administrator.
The higher-risk inflators are in certain 2001-2003 Honda and Acura vehicles:
• 2001-2002 Honda Civic
• 2001-2002 Honda Accord
• 2002-2003 Acura TL
• 2002 Honda CR-V
• 2002 Honda Odyssey
• 2003 Acura CL
• 2003 Honda Pilot
NHTSA estimates there are 300,000 of these older cars on the road that have not yet been repaired.
Notifications have been sent, but some owners haven't followed up.
New tests on these older cars with Takata air bags found that when people drove them in hot, damp places like
Florida along the Gulf Coast to Texas and southern California the inflators malfunctioned causing an explosion that sent shrapnel flying.
In lab tests, the inflators ruptured 50 percent of the time.
"Of the 10 united states lives that have been lost, eight have been in these vehicles," said Rosekind.
Many cars in this new warning have been recalled since 2008. Honda says 70 percent have been repaired. It's the other 30 percent they are trying to find and fix one car at a time.
Click here to see if your vehicle is on the recall list.