The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has concluded a preliminary evaluation of 441,002 Honda vehicles after the automaker initiated a recall for some Odyssey minivans, the agency said on Saturday.
The investigation was originally launched in October of last year and targeted roughly 441,000 units of the 2018-2022 Honda Odyssey. The review followed complaints that side curtain airbags had deployed unexpectedly while the vehicles were in motion, including episodes reportedly tied to pothole impacts.
Honda moved to address those safety concerns in April by issuing a recall that applies to certain 2018-2022 Odyssey models. In its recall filing with the NHTSA, the company reported that between January 24, 2017 and April 2, 2026 it had received 130 warranty claims and 25 reports of an injury related to the issue. The filing stated there were no reports of death connected to the defect during that period.
Customers affected by the recall were notified in late May of this year. Following the recall announcement and the information provided by Honda to the regulator, the NHTSA closed its preliminary evaluation of the identified vehicles.
The closure of the probe follows the automaker's remedial action and the data disclosed in its filing, which detailed the number of warranty claims and injury reports tied to the unintended airbag deployments. The recall specifically covers a subset of the 2018-2022 Odyssey line as described in Honda's recall documentation.
Details released in the recall filing indicate the timeframe and counts of reported issues that informed regulators' decision-making. The agency's action to end the preliminary evaluation came after the company formalized its remedy and customer notification plan in the spring.
Context note: The information above reflects data provided by Honda in its recall filing to the NHTSA and the actions described by the safety regulator regarding the preliminary evaluation and subsequent closure.