WASHINGTON (November 18, 2014) – U.S. Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) today released the following statement after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that it is urging 10 major automakers to expand recalls of vehicles to national campaigns for driver-side airbags. That's a change from regional campaigns limited to high-humidity areas.

“We are pleased that NHTSA today heeded our call to recognize the national scope of this problem, and abandoned its ill-advised, unacceptably-limited regional recalls. By expanding recalls beyond the most humid areas, NHTSA today acknowledged that the danger presented by Takata airbags is not limited to any one part of the country. NHTSA should additionally expand this recall to include passenger airbags that could injure or kill those not behind the wheel.

“NHTSA should now revisit its regional recall system that only protects certain drivers from dangerous defects. Regional recalls make little sense as a matter of policy because cars – let alone the Americans who drive them – are not bound by state lines, and needlessly put lives at risk.”