TULSA, Okla. — Thousands of vehicles on Oklahoma roads have open recall notices that remain unfixed for years, endangering not only those driving the affected vehicles but everyone sharing the road.
About 880,000 vehicles in Oklahoma currently have open recalls, according to Paul Harris, director of the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office.
"Unrepaired safety recalls pose a serious risk to those that are driving those vehicles," Harris said.
More than 118,000 vehicles in Oklahoma have open Takata airbag recalls — more than 15 years after the recall began. The faulty airbags caused at least 27 deaths, including an Oklahoma teen whose death initially revealed the airbag inflators' fatal flaw in 2009.
"A Takata airbag, if it deploys and explodes, tiny pieces of shrapnel are thrown throughout the driver's compartment of that vehicle that can seriously injure or kill the occupants of that vehicle," Harris said.
Last year, automakers issued more than 1,000 recalls affecting 29 million vehicles.
A 2015 law requires automakers to notify vehicle owners of recalls by first-class mail. However, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, many never see those notices because:
- Original vehicle owners moved without updating their registration, which automakers use to send out notices
- Automakers lose track of who owns vehicles when they're sold multiple times over the years
- Some dealerships limit recall repairs because they have to do them for free, making it frustrating to get recall repairs done
- More than a quarter of drivers fail to get recalls repaired because they don't believe recalls pose serious risks.
To get more open recalls fixed, Maryland uses a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration grant to alert vehicle owners of open recalls when it sends out vehicle registration renewals.
"We identified over 450,000 recalls, and 346,000 of those were actually remedied," said Chrissy Nizer, administrator of the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration.
2 News checked with Service Oklahoma, the office that handles the state's vehicle registrations, to ask why Oklahoma isn't using this grant?
We appreciate the example you shared of what other states are doing to promote public safety. Service Oklahoma assumed responsibility for motor vehicle services in January 2023 and has not yet participated in the NHTSA grant program you referenced. However, we continually look to adopt best practices from other states and jurisdictions. While Service Oklahoma does not directly receive or distribute vehicle recall notices, we maintain data-sharing agreements with companies that provide vehicle owner information to manufacturers so they can contact affected owners.
As a note: During the 2019 Takata airbag recalls, the Motor Vehicle Division, then under the Oklahoma Tax Commission, shared data to assist with owner notifications.
"I would definitely recommend this kind of program. Implementation was fairly simple in terms of, you know, getting the information, applying it to the notices that we're already sending out," Nizer said.
The program proves very effective in getting vehicle owners to get open recalls repaired.
How the recall process works
Manufacturers must notify registered vehicle owners by first-class mail within 60 days of reporting a recall to NHTSA. If repairs aren't made, owners may receive multiple notices for the same recall.
You don't have to wait for a notice to see if your vehicle has a recall. You can go to checktoprotect.org, put in your VIN or tag number, and it will let you know if your car has an open recall. If it does, authorized dealerships must make the repairs for free.
"This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy."
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