BMW recalling 44K vehicles in Canada over potentially deadly airbag issue

German carmaker BMW is recalling 394,000 vehicles inthe United States and 44,131 vehicles in Canada due to faulty airbag inflators that couldpotentially cause serious or fatal injuries.

The recall was reported by the U.S. NationalHighway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Wednesday, and updated on Transport Canada's websiteon Thursday.

An airbag inflator can explode, sending potentiallydeadly sharp metal fragments flying and striking the driver orothers in the vehicle, NHTSA said.

BMW said the issue covers airbag inflators that had beenpreviously recalled, but a vehiclecould have had a replacement steering wheel installed with a defective airbag.

In a statement emailed to CBC News, the company wrote that replacements are only needed "if the original steering wheel has been replaced with one containing an airbag module affected by the recall."

Owners can take vehicles to dealers for inspections, and ifa steering wheel with a recalled airbag is found, it will be replaced. BMW said it is unaware of any crashes or injuriestied to the new recall.

More than 30 deaths including at least 26 in the UnitedStates and hundreds of injuries since 2009 have beenattributed to Takata airbags fitted to vehicles of variousautomakers.

In 2020, NHTSA said it had identified a U.S. death tied to aTakata airbag inflator rupture in a BMW crash in Arizona.

Over the past decade, more than 100 million vehicles fittedwith Takata airbag inflators have been recalled worldwide.

Once the world's leading supplier of airbags, Takata filedfor bankruptcy in 2017 after the scandal.

According to Transport Canada, the latest recall involves some BMW1 and 3 Series vehicles from the years 2005 through 2012, as well as the X3 and X5 models from 2005 through 2016.