A Georgia man tells Channel 2 Action News Investigates the airbag in his minivan went off without warning. He has spent months trying to warn Honda and others about the safety concern.
“It was an explosion, right? It was like a bomb.” said Pavan Nanduri. “All the passenger side curtains, airbags, everything popped up, deployed.”
Now after Channel 2 Action News investigates started asking questions, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating the popular Honda Odyssey minivan after several drivers say their airbags went off for no reason, leaving some on the hook for huge repair costs.
Nanduri was behind the wheel of his family’s 2018 Honda Odyssey minivan when the airbags went off without any accident to cause them. The sudden distraction nearly caused him to crash.
“I’m lucky, right, and probably the people around me that day,” he said. “Everybody’s lucky.”
When he reported the accident to Honda, the automaker denied any responsibility. In a letter, American Honda told Nanduri that their review found “no evidence of defects in factory materials or workmanship.
“The weirdest part is they are saying, we didn’t find any reason,” Nanduri said. “I’m not buying that.”
Nanduri paid a company to review his minivan’s event data recorder, a black box that tracks sensor data from across the vehicle. It confirmed that there was no record of a crash.
According to a letter from his insurance company, Nanduri’s claim was rejected, leaving him on the hook for a $9,000 repair bill. The insurance company, State Farm, denied the claim precisely because there was no collision.
Driver testimonies in a NHTSA database tell a similar story according to complaints they filed with the agency.
Across the 20 complaints we found with similar issues across multiple model years of Honda Odyssey minivans, several drivers were left to fend for themselves after their airbags deployed without a crash.
Some drivers in that database wrote that they were “just on a normal flat city road,” or that it happened “just prior to reaching daycare.” One driver even noted that his daughter was hospitalized after the airbags went off without cause.
“Essentially, you’re left with nowhere to turn but your own wallet to pay for the problems,” said Michael Brooks, who leads the Center for Auto Safety. “It’s incredibly frustrating for owners in that situation, and this happens in a lot of defect situations.”
NHTSA announced an investigation at the end of October, just weeks after Channel 2 Action News Investigates submitted a Freedom of Information Act request with questions based on driver complaints. The investigation is looking at similar issues for Honda Odysseys with model years between 2018 and 2022.
“The very thing that’s supposed to be protecting you is causing a safety issue,” Brooks said. “That’s a really bad thing to them, and it suggests that they’re going to be pretty aggressive in handling this investigation.”
NHTSA will work with Honda to collect the company’s internal complaint data and gather more information about the vehicle’s design.
While there is no recall now, an investigation is an important early step in deciding whether one should be issued. It also helps investigators determine if the same issue could be showing up in other vehicles that share the same components.
Honda told Channel 2 Action News in a statement, “Honda is committed to safety. Honda has already been in communication with the agency on these topics and will continue to cooperate with NHTSA as the investigations continue.”
As part of the investigation, NHTSA contacted Nanduri directly earlier this month for more details about what happened to him. For him, it comes after he spent weeks trying to bring this issue to Honda’s attention through email and social media.
“It’s a dangerous thing,” Nanduri said. “I don’t know why they are taking it so easy because it’s a life-threatening issue, period.”
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