NHTSA Probes 1.2 Million Ford Explorers After Side Airbag Burn Injuries
The preliminary evaluation covers every 2021–2026 Explorer after 10 reported injuries, some to police officers. The airbags deployed in crashes; the burns are what NHTSA is investigating.
Federal safety regulators are investigating more than 1.2 million Ford Explorers after drivers and front passengers reported second- and third-degree burns when the SUV's seat-mounted side airbags deployed in a crash.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation opened the preliminary evaluation, PE26008, on Nov. 6. It covers an estimated 1,236,155 Explorers from the 2021 through 2026 model years, which is every Explorer of the current generation. This is not a recall, and there is no fix to schedule yet. If you want the background on how recalls reach owners and why so many go unrepaired, we covered NHTSA's plans for that process this week.
What the complaints say
According to the agency's opening resume, ODI has eight owner complaints and four death-and-injury reports Ford submitted under the Early Warning Reporting system. With duplicates removed, that comes to 11 incidents and 10 injuries. No deaths have been reported.
Every one of those incidents involved a crash. That matters, because some early coverage described the airbags as going off by accident. NHTSA's concern is different: what happens to the person in the seat once the side airbag deploys. The agency says the burns were typically second or third degree and required medical treatment, and that some complaints came from law enforcement officers in Explorer-based Police Interceptor Utility vehicles.
The resume doesn't name a cause, a supplier, or a specific seat design. Ford hadn't commented publicly as of Monday, Nov. 9, and Reuters' report on the probe carried no statement from the company.
What happens next
A preliminary evaluation is the first formal stage of a federal defect investigation. ODI will typically ask Ford for its own complaint, warranty, and field data. From there, the agency can close the probe, upgrade it to an engineering analysis, or push for a recall, and Ford can choose to recall the vehicles voluntarily at any point.
Ten injuries across 1.2 million vehicles is a small number, and raw recall and complaint counts are a poor way to judge a car. Still, the investigation targets a device whose job is to reduce injuries in a side impact, and every reported burn was serious enough to need treatment.
This generation's seat airbags have been flagged before, for a different reason. In 2021, Ford recalled 497 early 2021 Explorers because side airbag attachment weld studs might not meet strength specifications and could detach during deployment (campaign 21V652). That defect concerned how the bag positions itself, not burns, and NHTSA hasn't linked the two.
The Explorer probe adds to the federal scrutiny of Ford products this fall, which already includes open investigations into the 7.3-liter V8 and the Maverick's rearview camera.
What owners should do
For now, nothing changes for Explorer owners. There's no remedy and no park-outside or do-not-drive warning. Owners who were burned in a side airbag deployment can file a vehicle safety complaint with NHTSA, and anyone can check a VIN for open recalls with NHTSA's recall lookup.
