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TOKYO - Japanese automaker Honda has recalled 437,763 vehicles worldwide, mostly in North America, to fix defective airbags.
"Honda has decided to expand a recall related to a defect in the driver's SRS airbag installed on certain vehicles produced in 2001 and 2002 and has issued a notification in North America and Japan," it said in a statement.
"This recall also will be conducted in other affected regions and countries," it added. "The total number of vehicles subject to this expanded recall is 437,763 units worldwide."
Honda which earlier limited the recall to vehicles in the US and Canada said airbag inflators in affected vehicles "could produce excessive internal pressure which may cause the airbag inflator casing to rupture, resulting in metal fragments passing through the airbag cushion material and possibly causing injury or fatality to vehicle occupants."
The statement said the company was aware of twelve incidents in total involving the defect and one fatality.
The expansion is the third the company has made over the airbag problem, bringing the total number of cars affected to more than 900,000.
An initial recall announced in November 2008 affected just under 4,000 2001 Accords and Civics in the United States and just 218 cars in Canada.
The Honda recall saw stocks in Japan's number two automaker slip slightly on the Tokyo stock exchange while Toyota managed to claw back some ground after its recent stock fall triggered by its mass global recalls, including its popular Prius hybrid.
Toyota's worldwide recall has left the Japanese auto giant scrambling to shore up its brand image, long synonymous with reliability and quality, and sending out reassurances to drivers that it did not sacrifice safety.
After a barrage of complaints ranging from unintended acceleration to brake failure, the company issued a recall of almost 8.7 million vehicles around the world - far more than its entire 2009 global sales of 7.8 million vehicles.
The move covers the newest petrol-electric Prius as well as the plug-in Prius, the Sai sedan and the Lexus HS250h. Toyota also decided to suspend sales in Japan of the Sai and Lexus HS250h while it develops a fix for those vehicles.
The Japanese car maker said it had re-designed the anti-lock braking system for Prius cars produced since last month.
It caused drivers to experience a delay when the vehicle switches to the conventional hydraulic brake from regenerative braking, used by hybrids to capture the energy of the car's motion to recharge the battery for its electric motor.
The brake trouble comes on top of recalls of more than eight million vehicles worldwide due to sticking accelerator pedals that have been blamed for a number of crashes, some deadly.
The Japanese automaker's top brass as well as US regulators will now have to face a congressional committee later this month that will publicly grill them over the safety crisis that led to the vehicle recalls worldwide.
As lawsuits pile up amid accusations that Toyota knew about the problems for years and was slow to act, company president Akio Toyoda sought to reassure customers and said he planned to travel to the United States to explain the safety woes.
However, the Toyota family scion will not personally attend the planned US congressional hearing.
- AFP/sf
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