BMW Is Recalling Every American i3 Because Someone Might Get Hurt If They Don't Wear A Seat Belt

BMW is recalling every i3 it has ever sold in the USA, and the reason why is astonishing.

It comes on the grounds that government testing has discovered that a female of a specific height and weight sitting in the passenger seat might be at “marginally” higher risk of neck injury when, err, not wearing a seat belt.

Surely you’re also at significantly greater risk of having your organs turned to soup when you bounce around the interior of the car like it’s a human pinball machine, so a tiny bit of sans restraint neck trauma is neither here nor there.

Sadly, that’s not how the authorities see it. This is the famously humourless National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the same organisation that wants electric cars in the US to make noises below 19mph in case people are too stupid to look before crossing the road. The NHTSA is our absolute favourite government agency. Wait, no, the opposite of that.

The madness in this case is over the i3 failing a ‘front rigid barrier’ crash, where a female in the front passenger seat who is five feet tall and weighs 50kg (110lb) is judged to be at fractionally higher risk of neck injury – again, when she’s not wearing a seat belt.

There should be a clause in the law saying that if you don’t wear your seat belt you’re not allowed to complain if you get injured, but instead BMW has issued a voluntary recall, possibly under pain of NHTSA enforcement action, for more than 30,500 cars.

In a statement BMW said:

“While BMW’s compliance testing showed results well below the required limits, more recent testing has shown inconsistent results.

“Consequently, BMW has issued a recall and is working with the agency to understand the differences in the test results. A remedy is forthcoming.”

It’s not often we really feel for a car company, but in this case…

Source: Autoblog