Honda expands Takata air bag recall

Honda is adding more vehicles to its recalls involving Takata air bags with inflators that can injure passengers by showering passengers with metal and plastic shards in an accident.

The recall includes certain 2001-2006 model year vehicles, most of which have been mentioned before in a "safety improvement campaign," into a formal recall, the automaker said late Thursday. The recall now involves 13 states and U.S. territories where high humidity could exacerbate the air bag's hazards.

The recall extends to models including 2003 to 2005 Honda Accords; 2001 to 2005 Civics; 2002 to 2005 CR-Vs; 2003 to 2004 Elements; 2002 to 2004 Odysseys; 2003 to 2005 Pilots; 2006 Ridgelines; 2003 to 2005 Acura MDXs; and the 2005 Acura RL, Honda said.

Now, the recall covers states with high humidity where the car was originally sold or ever registered: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Saipan, Guam and American Samoa.

Toyota took a similar action last month in expanding to its own list of high-humidity states.

Honda says it doesn't know of any confirmed claimed injuries or fatalities due to the air-bag issue.

Although 10 automakers in the U.S. have been drawn into the Takata recalls, Honda has been among the most affected. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has asked for documents from Honda to know more about what it knew about the air bag issue.