Aftermarket Chinese airbag inflators have claimed an 11th life in the United States after a collision on August 27, 2026, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
NHTSA officials said the fatal crash occurred in Dallas, Texas, and involved the first known incident of a Chevrolet Equinox being involved in an defective airbag casualty. All 10 previous deaths and three severe injuries involved Chevrolet Malibu and Hyundai Sonata models.
Every incident NHTSA examined involved vehicles with original frontal driver airbag inflators that were replaced with defective, illegally imported inflators marked with the identifier DTN60DB. A NHTSA report on the ten previous incidents describes the faulty airbag inflators as expelling shrapnel into drivers’ chests, necks, eyes, and faces. Previous fatal incidents occurred between May 2023 and February 2026; the inflators in question are believed to have been manufactured in 2021 and 2022.
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The manufacturer of these airbags, DTN, has disputed federal regulators’ claims, specifically casting doubt on the faulty inflators being blamed for the deaths. Jilin Province Detiannuo Safety Technology Co, which is the full name of DTN, said that “it [cannot] be proven that the accidents were caused by defective inflators” and that “the inflator is only one component of the system; improper installation or defects in other components can all lead to an accident.” DTN also claims that it cannot be proven that it manufactured the faulty airbags, instead saying it is likely a counterfeit version merely wearing the DTN logo.
“In each of the twelve incidents addressed in this decision, a subject inflator with the DTN60DB labeling ruptured. The investigative file contains direct support, including several autopsy and police reports, that establish the subject inflators ruptured and that the injuries and fatalities were directly caused by the ruptured subject inflators,” NHTSA’s final decision reads.
Photos of a DTN60DB inflator and inflator caps are on NHTSA’s website, and more information is available in NHTSA’s investigation file online. NHTSA is urging owners of used vehicles that have previously been in a crash with an airbag deployment since 2020 to have their vehicles inspected. Additionally, if a vehicle is found with a DTN60DB inflator, it should not be driven until the unit is replaced with genuine parts.
A New York transplant hailing from the Pacific Northwest, Emmet White has a passion for anything that goes: cars, bicycles, planes, and motorcycles. After learning to ride at 17, Emmet worked in the motorcycle industry before joining Autoweek in 2022 and Road & Track in 2024. The woes of alternate side parking have kept his fleet moderate, with a 2014 Volkswagen Jetta GLI and a BMW 318i E30 street parked in his Queens community.