We were kinda hoping that 2010 would be the year of auto industry recovery, but instead it's becoming increasingly obvious that it is turning into Year Of The Recall. This time, Honda is up to bat with another 378,758 recalls for an apparent airbag inflator issue. The nearly 400,000 units have been added to the already announced 440,000 vehicles red tagged back in August. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that certain airbags in the affected vehicles can deploy so violently that the inflator will rupture. When the bag is deployed, NHTSA reports that metal shards from the excessive explosion could act like shrapnel, shoot through the bag and possibly injure vehicle occupants. Ouchie.

Honda said in a statement on the automaker's website that there were 12 reported incidents of this happening, with one fatality. The original recall back in November, 2008 was for only 4,000 2001 Accords and Civics but in July, 2009 Honda added more makes of the 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic and some 2002 Acura TL models. The newly updated list includes 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic, Odyssey, CR-V, and selected 2002 Acura TL vehicles.

NHTSA announced that it was investigating the timing of the Honda airbag recall back in November. The government agency was curious as to why the Japanese automaker needed eight months to add an additional 440,000 vehicles. Hit the jump to read over the Honda press release, which includes directions for owners of affected vehicles.



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