MELANIE PAYNE

TELLMEL@NEWS-PRESS.COM

If you own one of the Hondas or Acuras I’m writing about in this column and you have not had it in the shop for the exploding airbag recall, there is only one place you need to go: To the nearest dealership. Drive anywhere else and you are putting your life at risk.

Why the dire warning? Because the airbag inflators in certain Hondas and Acuras, manufactured between 2001 and 2003, have a 50 percent chance of rupturing in a crash.

The potential for death or serious injuries from exploding Takata airbag inflators has led to an unprecedented partnership between Honda and the state of Florida in an effort to track down vehicles that may contain what is essentially a car bomb.

At the request of American Honda Motor Co., the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles sent out letters to nearly 30,000 Floridians urging them to immediately take their cars, minivans and SUVs into a dealer for replacement of the airbag inflators.

Honda spokesman Chris Martin said the company ramped up the search for these vehicles after laboratory tests on inflators removed from older vehicles in Florida showed a significantly higher failure rate. The aging propellant in these airbags degrades, Martin said, making it much more likely the airbag will deploy and rupture in a crash.

“It’s a very serious thing,” Martin said.

When the airbag inflators rupture, metal fragments shoot out and can seriously injure or even kill drivers and passengers. Federal regulators have confirmed 11 deaths and more than 100 injuries in the U.S. due to exploding airbags. Millions of vehicles made by a number of manufacturers were installed with Takata Corporation's defective airbag inflators and now under recall.

While about 72 percent of all the 2001-03 Honda vehicles in the recall have had airbag inflators replaced, still some 300,000 are unaccounted for, Martin said. And about 10 percent of those are believed to be in Florida, where the heat and humidity makes a rupture more likely. The vehicle models involved are:

2001-2002 Honda Accord

2001-2002 Honda Civic

2002 Honda CR-V

2002 Honda Odyssey

2003 Honda Pilot

2002-2003 Acura 3.2TL

2003 Acura 3.2CL

Honda provided the identification numbers of vehicles whose owners hadn’t heeded the recall notices and the Department of Motor Vehicles ran it against their database and sent out nearly 30,000 notices, said Florida DMV spokeswoman Beth Frady. Honda paid for the mailing.

Recalls are not within the purview of the state, Frady said. They are handled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a federal agency and part of the U.S. Department of Transportation. But the state agency joined Honda in getting the word out because this is such a serious safety issue.

Defective airbag recall expanded: Are you in danger?

Service related to the recall is being done without charge and owners are under no obligation to purchase any other service on the car, Martin said. Also, if you don’t want to drive your car knowing of the danger, Honda can arrange for towing and a loaner free of charge.

To see if your vehicle is under any recall go to safercar.gov and enter your Vehicle Identification Number.

Contact: TellMel@news-press.com; (239)344-4772; 2442 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Fort Myers, FL 33901. facebook.com/TellMel and Twitter @tellmel Sign up for the Tell Mel newsletter at news-press.com/newsletters