Lynette Loretto, a mother of three who lives in an Indian pueblo in Jemez, N.M., didn't know that the shiny yellow Chevy Cavalier she bought from a used-car dealer was a potential death trap. When she found out later that the car had been in an accident and didn't have working air bags, she says it made her skin crawl.
"I went hysterical," Loretto says. "I drove my daughters in that car a couple of times. ... If something were to have happened to us ... that would have been awful."
A Weekend Edition investigation shows that some unscrupulous auto repair shops have victimized consumers by failing to replace air bags that had deployed in a crash. The investigation also reveals instances in which used-car dealers sold cars without working air bags.
In some cases, air bag compartments have been stuffed with beer cans, paper or packing peanuts. Sometimes the original, faulty air bag is just pushed back in. And sometimes the air bag isn't replaced at all, leaving the compartment empty.
Although the number of such victims is unknown, the consequences can be tragic.
