NHTSA asks AGAIN to stop putting stick-on badges in your steering wheels

Customizing cars is quite a lot of fun. Adding that little bit of private flair could make something feel like your personal. But some modifications can’t only hamper the functionality of a automobile, but more critically, the security. And essentially the most dangerous are those who can interfere along with your automobile’s safety equipment. One which NHTSA is highlighting for the second time is the stick-on badges you possibly can get to embellish your steering wheel.

Yow will discover them nearly anywhere on the web, often sporting plastic rhinestones or simply different colours than the standard chrome steering wheel badge. Innocent as they could appear, the issue is, as NHTSA points out, they might be dislodged, broken and flung off the steering wheel when the airbag deploys. It has received a report of an individual in a crash where two pieces of a badge got lodged within the person’s neck and face after the airbag went off.

This is not the just one, either. Back in November, NHTSA issued an analogous warning after getting a report of somebody’s aftermarket badge broke off. That person lost sight in a single eye.

Besides the projectile potential of those add-ons, NHTSA also notes that placing anything over where your airbags are could inhibit their operation. Automakers rigorously engineer their panels and airbag equipment to open up in specific ways, and attaching things that would prevent that could possibly be a risk, too.

The excellent news is that that is a straightforward thing to handle. Ideally, just do not get considered one of these decal badges in the primary place. But when you’ve gotten bought and installed one, well, just remove it. Grab on and yank it off, and even grab a screwdriver to pry it off if it’s really stuck on. In any case, from the sound of it, it’s probably not going to be all that well attached anyway. Do note we’re specifically talking about centrally situated badges on the steering wheel where the airbag is enclosed, other vivid interior bling is not being called out.