Counterfeit airbag conversation points to broader threat

One photo in the federal investigative file on deadly counterfeit airbags made Teena Bohi cry the moment she saw it.

It wasn’t the autopsy photos. She didn’t look at those. 

A photo of Alexia De La Rosa smiling at the camera on her 16th birthday, standing in front of her new 2019 Hyundai Sonata stirred emotion. 

Yet, it was the photo of De La Rosa’s steering wheel after the crash that sent Bohi into tears while at work. 

A small reindeer is seen clipped to the 17-year-old’s wheel. Beside the reindeer, only the base of the airbag module remained.

The counterfeit airbag exploded like a bomb, sending metal fragments through the vehicle, ultimately killing the Utah teen. 

“It was something that should have not happened,” Bohi, an Automotive Anti-Counterfeiting Council (A2C2) board member, said during a Collision Industry Conference (CIC) meeting last week. “It was a minor accident that should have been survivable from all accounts.”

Bohi, a past A2C2 board president and Toyota Motor sales senior brand protection analyst, has spent her career investigating counterfeit parts. During that time, dangerous counterfeit safety components, including airbags, have likely gone undetected in vehicles for more than a decade. 

De La Rosa’s death and others are bringing recent attention to the issue. 

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced in April that it has banned one type of counterfeit airbag part. A defective Chinese inflator was in the airbag that killed De La Rosa and nine other individuals. 

The specific airbag part has been identified in 12 crashes that also injured two people. 

The number of deaths and injuries could rise. 

A NHTSA document in the investigative file estimates about 10,000 of these specific counterfeit inflators remain in vehicles on U.S. roads. It also notes that it is hard to determine the actual number. 

A Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article also reports that an internal email from a NHTSA investigator states it is nearly impossible to determine how many more of the DTN-branded inflators might explode. He says any estimate would be a “wild guess.” 

Bohi discussed her research on counterfeit airbags with Aaron Schulenburg, Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) executive director, during the Industry Experiment segment of CIC’s July 22 meeting in Chicago. 

Their conversation dove into the investigation, how the parts are entering the market, what the repair industry should know, and why Bohi finds the work important. 

Tip of the Iceberg

NHTSA has stated that all 12 crashes involved Chinese frontal driver airbag inflators manufactured by Jilin Province Detiannuo Safety Technology Co. Ltd (DTN). 

“They have found a certain population of airbag inflators,” Bohi said. “That company, DTN, is not the only source of these counterfeit products.” 

Documents in the NHTSA investigative file support Bohi’s statement.

A consumer advisory on counterfeit airbags was first issued in October 2012. NHTSA testing revealed that inflators in counterfeit airbags consistently malfunctioned, either by failing to deploy or expelling metal shrapnel due to a rupture. 

None of the modules tested by NHTSA in 2012 were manufactured by DTN. 

The first fatality from a counterfeit airbag documented by NHTSA happened in 2017. It involved a 2009 Honda Civic. NHTSA was unable to determine the manufacturer of the inflator but says it does not appear to resemble those manufactured by DTN. 

It was June 2023 when NHTSA first learned of a fatality that it later determined was a DTN airbag inflator. Within a year, NHTSA learned of four more deaths connected to DTN. The number has continued to rise. 

“We think this is the tip of the iceberg,” Bohi said about the investigation. “As an industry, we are excited to see NHTSA investigate the issue because it has brought more public awareness to the problem that we are seeing, but we hope they don’t stop there.” 

Bohi said A2C2 has thought for many years that deaths and injuries from counterfeit airbags have gone undetected and underreported, partly because first responders may not realize what they are seeing. 

“One of the things that the council has started to do is reach out and educate law enforcement and first responders to make them more aware of what to look for,” she said. 

After being educated, law enforcement officers have told A2C2 that they’d previously seen similar crash sites but didn’t know what to do. 

Bohi told a story where an officer thought someone was shot in a drive-by shooting because the injuries looked more similar to that scenario than the 30 mph or less vehicle collision the victim was in. 

A Desire to Make Inexpensive Repairs

De La Rosa died in the roadway minutes after her vehicle was involved in a front-end collision, according to a lawsuit filed by Morgan & Morgan law firm on behalf of her family. 

The collision deployed the counterfeit airbag, shooting a large, jagged chunk of metal shrapnel into De La Rosa’s chest, alleges the suit. 

Morgan & Morgan filed suit against AutoSavvy in March, alleging the dealership purchased the Sonata after it had been declared a total loss following a 2023 crash in which the driver’s airbag deployed. AutoSavvy repaired the vehicle using a counterfeit, noncompliant airbag before reselling it, according to the lawsuit. 

NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison told WSJ that a traditional recall is unlikely to work for counterfeit parts. 

“Normally, carmakers can easily trace where potentially problematic parts originated and how they were imported, but with the substandard airbag parts, there are no records of who sent them to the U.S. and distributed them,” the article states.  

The NHTSA investigation did bring to light the process that many of the vehicles with counterfeit airbags go through, Bohi said. 

“Up until the point that a counterfeit product gets installed in the vehicle, everything about it is legal,” she added. 

The vehicles are typically fleet vehicles or self-insured vehicles that were at some point totaled, Bohi said. 

“The totaling of a vehicle isn’t a cut-and-dried process,” Bohi says. “The value is driven depending on whether it is self-insured, the state the vehicle was in, the insurer’s own practices, processes, and thresholds. There is a lot that goes into just determining if the vehicle is totaled.” 

Next, the vehicle often goes to an auction. If it is a public auction, an airbag deployment will possibly be reported to the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS). The system is a database meant to prevent the resale of stolen vehicles and track unsafe salvage cars. If the vehicle goes to a wholesale or private auction, the previous crash information is not always captured, she said. 

According to an Automotive News opinion piece, about 2.5 million vehicles were declared totaled by insurers last year before eventually returning to U.S. roadways. It says that a shift in insurers totaling more vehicles, along with the higher cost of new and used vehicles, has forced more dealers to repair and sell salvaged-titled vehicles. 

Copart’s CEO Jeff Liaw discussed how salvaging a car for auction competes with collision repairs during an earnings call last year.

“Even an insurance carrier can sell their cars through other intermediaries; they can have more of them repaired,” Liaw said in the September call. “In many respects, we compete with the repair shops. The higher the returns we generate, the more we can win the rights to resolve that claim versus the repair industry. The lower the returns we generate, the more we lose head-to-head against the repair shops as well. There are a number of competitive threats that we face on any given day.”

He went on to describe how delivering “excellent service,” such as expediting cycle times and interacting with policyholders, can drive auction returns.

Those vehicles eventually have to be rebuilt before returning to the road — a process Bohi said can create opportunities for counterfeit safety components to enter the supply chain.

While automakers sell certified replacement parts for deployed airbags, counterfeit airbags sell for as little as $100 on websites such as eBay and Facebook Marketplace — one-tenth of the typical OEM cost, WSJ reports. Often the parts are labeled as OEM. 

“I have seen counterfeit airbags for sale online by recyclers who just took it out of the car, and they didn’t know what they were selling, but I could look at it and know it was a counterfeit airbag,” Bohi said.

It is important for collision repair shops to always know their source, she added. 

“We certainly don’t think that anybody is going out and looking for a counterfeit part,” Bohi said. “They are looking for a genuine part at the best price they can get to repair a vehicle within the constraint they are given, whether that is a consumer paying out of pocket, whether that is an insurer or an adjuster trying to direct where those parts come from.”

After the repair, vehicles are retitled, and the process can vary state to state, including the inspection process, Bohi says. Many don’t require airbag inspections.  

“There are a lot of gaps where attention could be focused that could help address these types of issues,” Bohi said.

The Automotive News piece suggests that state processes, including inspection requirements, may need to be reworked as the market shifts to more dealers selling salvaged titles. 

California Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) has proposed changes that would add more regulations on parts used in airbag replacement. The changes would also ban manufacturing, importing, or selling any airbags that don’t meet rules set in the regulation. 

Bohi said there is not just one group facilitating these vehicles with counterfeit airbags. Each of the DTN incidents has happened in different states, from California to Pennsylvania. 

“It is a lack of knowledge and unfortunately the desire to make inexpensive repairs on a vehicle to sell it quickly,” Bohi said. 

Catch-22

Reputable collision repair shops are unlikely to use counterfeit parts, but those parts can still arrive at shops in vehicles that need repairs, Bohi said. Safety inspections of vehicle components, such as airbags and seatbelts, can help repair shops identify counterfeit parts. 

“There are usually a lot of other things wrong with these cars when a counterfeit airbag is installed,” Bohi said. “Usually the seatbelts are also deployed, and those are typically not properly repaired either. There are bypass resistors that can be installed, itty bitty things that can be bought for a dollar on various websites.” 

A New Jersey shop highlighted this in a video last year. A technician at the shop found resistors wired into the safety restraint system during a seatbelt safety inspection. 

Technicians who are looking for guidance on identifying a DTN airbag can also refer to an NHTSA document. The document outlines the materials and design characteristics that can be used to indicate whether an airbag is a counterfeit. DTN airbags are also often marked with DTN60DB. Yet, it can be hard to identify DTN airbags when they’re still installed in a vehicle. 

During the CIC discussion, Schulenburg noted that reputable collision shops follow OEM procedures when doing repairs, , but that those procedures are designed to properly repair vehicles with safe, correct parts – not dangerous counterfeit parts. He questioned if there are additional processes that shops should follow if they suspect a counterfeit airbag. 

“It is a concern,” Bohi said. “It’s a catch-22. You have NHTSA, a government agency, saying if you bought a used car and you think it has previously been in an accident where the airbag deployed or you know it has, go get it checked out by a reputable shop. And the reputable shop is like, ‘You want me to do what?’”

Bohi said the council has reached out to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) to get clarification on those processes. 

“How do you safely handle these things, and what do you do if you get one? Because there are special permits to transport or get rid of these things if there is a counterfeit because we don’t know what’s in them. It’s an unknown explosive, potentially,” Bohi said. 

NHTSA’s technician guidance does offer warnings that strongly advise technicians not to electronically probe or electrify airbag connecting terminals because they can detonate and cause serious injury or death. 

Bud Center, I-CAR director of technical products and curriculum, told Repairer Driven News that electronic probes can be used to deploy a removed airbag. However, if a repairer believes an airbag is counterfeit, they should contact the vehicle’s OEM and ask for instructions. 

“You want to make sure you are not going to deploy something that is unsafe,” Center said. 

Center dives into the issue of counterfeit parts from the collision shop level in I-CAR’s most recent Repairers Realm.

Nearly all OEMs and many major aftermarket parts companies have people within their organizations who can answer questions concerning products, Bohi said.

Schulenburg asked Bohi what businesses can do to have a positive impact on the problem. 

Bohi reiterated the importance of safety inspections to identify the issue and added that educating consumers is important. 

She added: “A lot of people don’t realize that when they buy an insurance policy, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are going to get OEM parts, and they need to understand what are the categories that I might be getting, and how that will impact the future longevity of my car?”

Take Down the Bad Guy

Bohi said she continues to do her job because it allows her to help hold accountable those who put dangerous counterfeit parts onto roadways. 

Recently, Bohi joined several other automakers, NHTSA, and DOT as a search warrant was executed. 

“NHTSA isn’t usually there,” Bohi said. “They were there because one of the individual shops that we were going to raid sold the counterfeit airbag that killed Alexia De La Rosa.” 

Hundreds of counterfeit airbags were confiscated from more than five locations in that area, Bohi said. 

In another case, a federal judge sentenced a Raleigh man to one year and a day for importing and selling thousands of counterfeit airbags in February. Mateen Mohammad Alinaghian sold the airbags locally and to online buyers through Facebook Marketplace. He was ordered to pay $83,405 to the victims and $154,693 to automakers. 

Court documents show he imported 2,500 counterfeit airbags with markings of Honda, Chevrolet, General Motors, and Toyota from a supplier in the United Kingdom. 

Bohi said that her job allows her to have experiences where she “takes down the bad guy.”

“There is more of that to be done,” Bohi said.

Image

Feature photo of Teena Bohi, Automotive Anti-Counterfeiting Council (A2C2) board member, at CIC July 22, 2026.

Embedded photos of Alexia De La Rosa steering wheel, De La Rosa crash scene, DTN counterfeit airbags and De La Rosa in front of vehicle from NHTSA investigation.