Consumers Claim Some Honda Air Bags Spontaneously Deploy

DENVER, Colo. (KUSA)--A 9Wants to Know investigation shows that airbags in some newer model Hondas have deployed without warning when drivers shut their car doors, wait at stoplights and even drive down highways.

However, the manufacturer, American Honda, often refuses to pay to fix the air bags, blames the deployments on the drivers and tells them to file claims with their insurance companies, according to complaints filed with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA).

"I think it's just not fair. It shouldn't be happening," driver Ismail Ayan of Denver said. His Honda sat at a Denver dealership unrepaired for three months. "I don't deserve this. No one deserves this."

Ayan says his driver's side and side curtain airbags deployed in his 2008 Honda Civic while he was waiting for a green light at South Colorado Boulevard and East Evans Avenue on April 18.

His air bags exploded so hard and so suddenly, Ayan thought he had been shot.

"The pain is real, real horrible pain and it's just a big shock because it came from nowhere," Ayan said.

The airbags left big bruises on his arm for eight days and caused his ears to ring for two days.

Ayan got out of his car to make sure no one had hit him, then drove straight to Mile High Honda where he bought the car 10 months earlier.

Instead of fixing his car under the warranty, Mile High and American Honda examined Ayan's vehicle. They told him they found slight under-body damage and that his car was slightly out of alignment. American Honda ruled that Ayan must have hit something and caused the air bags to deploy on his own.

"The damages we discovered, they were consistent, in my opinion, with hitting a curb or hitting a pot hole. Something you may not even know you did," Yury Ablin said, General Manager of Mile High Honda. "American Honda does not believe air bags can deploy by themselves."

Mile High Honda could not repair Ayan's car with out charges until the auto manufacturer, American Honda, approved.

First, American Honda agreed to repair the vehicle if Ayan signed a release form that would not let him sue the automaker. Ayan refused to sign the release-of-all-claims form. Then, the automaker insisted Ayan had an accident and, therefore, should put a claim in with his insurance company, State Farm.

Mile High and American Honda refused to show 9NEWS their records for Ayan's Civic.

State Farm examined Ayan's car twice and showed 9NEWS their results and photos of the vehicle.

"There is no physical evidence to support that the vehicle hit anything that created any damage either to the suspension, to the wheels, to the tires, to the under carriage, to the rocker panels or anything to support that he hit something that would have caused these air bags to deploy," State Farm Agent Steve Hassoldt said. "We believe what Mr. Ayan told us; that he was stopped, waiting for a light to turn green when the air bags discharged. We have nothing to believe otherwise."

Despite State Farm's findings, American Honda and Mile High Honda did not believe Ayan's story about how his airbags deployed.

"I'm not a liar," Ayan said. "I'm telling the truth."

"We sell thousands and thousand of Hondas every year for the last 23 years and not once have I had a complaint like this," Ablin of Mile High said. "I don't believe it."

However, 9Wants to Know has learned the automaker has been told about the problem repeatedly over the last five years.

NHTSA data shows 96 drivers have complained since 2004 that their air bags spontaneously deployed in their newer-model Hondas even though they were not in accidents. Drivers said they were pulling into their driveways, driving down straight roads in good weather or closing their doors when the air bags deployed.

Heather Gutierrez of Los Angeles was driving home from school in her 2003 Honda Accord on an interstate highway Feb. 4 when she says her passenger-side curtain airbag inadvertently deployed. She was not hurt.

"All of a sudden, it popped and I swerved. I thought it was a flat tire but my air bag deployed. Honda gave me an estimate of $5,100 to fix it even though I didn't hit anything," Gutierrez told 9Wants to Know. "I didn't think that was right."

Gutierrez and several others blogged about their air bags going off without warning on the consumer affairs.com Web site. Gutierrez and Connie Kaupa of Minnesota hired attorney Mike Arias in Los Angeles. Arias has filed a class-action lawsuit against American Honda.

"She attempted to have Honda recognize the problem on its own and they told her that it has nothing to do with their system and it was basically her fault," Arias said. "Honda needs to acknowledge there's a problem, find out what the problem is, then repair it and correct it."

American Honda spokesman Chris Martin says the automaker has received a copy of the lawsuit and cannot comment because of pending litigation. Martin says Honda has not filed a response to the lawsuit in court because it just recently received the complaint.

NHTSA complaints also show that Honda often denied there was a defect, told the drivers that they caused the air bags to deploy by their driving habits and made the drivers or their insurance companies foot the bill to fix the vehicles.

Records show in 48 cases where dealership involvement was mentioned in the complaints, American Honda or its dealerships refused to pay to fix the cars 46 times.

A driver in Massachusetts complained that the dealership said, "they have never heard of such a thing happening." A driver in Texas wrote, "They assume I am lying even though there is clearly no physical evidence of an impact." And a driver in Virginia wrote that the dealer said, "I could have hit a pot hole or something causing the air bag to deploy. The car was parked in front of my home. We hit nothing!"

In Denver, American Honda wrote Ayan a letter in June that reads, "Honda did not cause this accident and bears no liability."

Honda refused to repair Ayan's vehicle for three months even though he was still making car payments on it. The dealership changed its mind and settled with Ayan without saying why after 9Wants to Know began asking questions. Honda made Ayan sign a confidentiality agreement, so while he cannot say what the company did for him, he did say he was satisfied with the settlement.

"I got my life back. I don't have to think about it any more," Ayan said.

Honda would not comment about the settlement.

While there were 96 inexplicable deployments, analysts at the NHTSA says that is statistically insignificant compared to the number of Hondas on the road. Therefore, NHTSA does not plan on opening an investigation.

"The NHTSA has not seen any evidence that there is a safety issue," Ray Tyson said, NHTSA spokesman.

Tyson says since side impact crashes can be more devastating than other types of crashes, the manufacturers use relatively sensitive equipment to make sure they deploy in a crash.

"Because of that, road debris and other items may trigger the air bags to deploy in a non-impact situation," Tyson said.

However, researchers at Safety Research & Strategies, Inc. say that Honda's newer model side air bags deploy more often than other automakers air bags. The group describes themselves as a research firm that specializes in motor vehicle safety and consumer product safety issues.

"When you have an air bag deploying in a non-crash situation, that system is defective. Plan and simple," researcher Sean Kane said. "When you close a door, even if you close it hard, an air bag should never deploy. When you hit a pot hole and there's no physical damage to the car, the air bag should not deploy. And these are problems that are inherent defects with their system."

Kane says that manufacturers often blame the consumer when there's a problem instead of owning up to it.

"A company doing the right thing would step up and take care of the problem, identify the root cause and reach out to the consumers in the cards and simply do a recall."

The NHTSA complaints show that no one has been killed by the inexplicable air bag deployments in Hondas. However, the air bags have broken arms, dislocated jaws and noses, caused temporary hearing loss and scared the drivers, according to NHTSA records. The air bags in Ayan's car deeply bruised his arm for eight days, caused his ears to ring for 16 hours, and made him lose sleep worrying about what might have happened if the air bags had deployed while he was driving.

Before Ayan signed the confidentiality agreement with Honda, he told 9Wants to Know he was deeply disappointed by the experience of trying to make American Honda pay to repair his car for three months.

"I was a customer before I bought the car, but once I bought the car, I wasn't a customer anymore. The relationship with the customer just ends there," Ayan said.