DETROIT—A Tennessee company could be heading for a legal battle with U.S. auto safety regulators after refusing a request that millions of potentially dangerous air bag inflators be recalled.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is demanding that ARC Automotive Inc. of Knoxville recall 67 million inflators in the United States because they could explode and hurl shrapnel. At least two people have been killed in the United States and Canada, and seven others have been hurt as a result of defective ARC inflators, the agency said.
The recall would cover a large portion of the 284 million vehicles now on U.S. roads, but the percentage is difficult to determine. Some have ARC inflators for both the driver and front passenger….