DETROIT (AP) — In September, Hyundai and Kia issued a recall of 3.4 million vehicles in the United States with an ominous warning: The vehicles should be parked outdoors and away from buildings because they risked catching fire, with the engines on or off.
Six months later, most of those autos remain on the road — unrepaired — putting owners, their families and potentially others in danger of fires that could spread to garages, houses or other vehicles.
Hyundai and Kia have acknowledged in documents that there's little hope of repairing most of the vehicles until June or later, roughly nine months after they announced the recalls. (Hyundai owns part of Kia, though the two companies operate independently.)
The companies attributed the delays, in part, to the huge number of vehicles involved. The fires, they say, have occurred when brake fluid leaked onto circuit boards of antilock braking systems, triggering an electrical short and igniting the fluid. They say they've been unable to obtain enough parts — fuses that reduce the boards' electrical currents — to fix most of the affected vehicles. Among them are some of their top-selling models for the 2010 through 2017 years, including Hyundai’s Santa Fe and Kia’s Sportage.
The companies say owners should contact dealers if they see dashboard warning lights or smell something burning. In the meantime, both say that despite ongoing risks, the cars remain safe to drive.
When they announced the recalls in September, the automakers reported that the defect had caused 56 vehicle fires and “thermal incidents,” which include burning, melting and smoking. No injuries were reported.
Safety advocates complain that repairs are taking longer than recall fixes normally do. Typically, repairs begin in 10 weeks or less, though some can take longer if automakers cannot quickly determine a cause. Advocates note that if too much brake fluid leaks, it could impair stopping ability.
The delayed repairs mark the latest in a series of recalls involving engine fires on Hyundai and Kia vehicles that have bedeviled the automakers. All told, 13 million vehicles have been recalled for engine problems since 2010.
With the current recall, safety advocates say they're mystified about why it’s taking so long to obtain simple fuses. Some question whether the companies are trying to save money by not fixing the fluid leaks.
“It looks like it’s a cheap fix instead of repairing the entire antilock brake system," said Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety.
Advocates also ask why the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration hasn't forced the companies to repair the leaks. The agency said it's monitoring the effectiveness of the recalls and “is working with the automakers to ensure the highest level of safety.”
Hyundai said the repairs require an intricate fuse assembly, with new covers and labels. Just one fuse will be added per vehicle, but both automakers said many types of new fuses are needed to cover all models.
"We are working closely with multiple suppliers, emphasizing the high priority of the recall, and ensuring quality for the replacement fuses,” Hyundai's statement said. Kia also said it’s working to speed up fuse production.
A schedule that Hyundai filed with the government shows that owners won't start receiving letters advising them to take their cars in for repairs until April 22. Most won't get the letters until May or June — eight or nine months after the recalls were announced. Some Kia owners won't get those letters until late June, documents say.
Both companies also said dealers will fix brake fluid leaks found during inspections. Fluid can leak if O-ring seals lose strength when exposed to moisture or dirt in the fluid, according to Hyundai documents filed with NHTSA. If the brake fluid level drops significantly, Hyundai said, the driver would see a warning light.
Since September, more than 500 owners filed complaints with NHTSA accusing the automakers of taking too long to make repairs. The fires have continued while owners await repairs; at least five complainants reported engine compartment fires.
Several complainants said they want NHTSA to make the companies provide loaner cars or speed up repairs. Hyundai told dealers last year that they should provide loaners. Kia said it, too, would provide loaners.
Some were confused by Hyundai statements that the recalled vehicles can be driven even though they can catch fire while the engines are running. “This safety recall sounds urgent and incredibly dangerous,” one owner of a 2012 Hyundai Accent from Burbank, California, wrote in a complaint to NHTSA in December.
Both companies said that while fires are rare, if they do happen, owners would smell smoke or see warning lights. The warnings would “allow for a safe exit from the vehicle,” Kia's statement said.
But Brooks of the Center for Auto Safety argues it's irresponsible to assure owners the vehicles are safe when the companies know that fires are possible. If smoke or warning lights appear, he said, the automakers have no way of predicting how long it would take for occupants to escape.
“There are a lot of (fire) situations where consumers simply weren't aware,” Brooks said. “That is going to compromise the time they have to escape the vehicle if there's a fire.”
He urged every owner of the recalled vehicles to seek a loaner car.
Ellen Maisano of Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania, said she parked her 2011 Kia Soul in her yard for four months until trading it in last January out of frustration with the slow repairs.
"I don’t want to be on the highway and catch on fire,” said Maisano. She also didn't want to leave the Soul near other vehicles at work, and she feared parking it in her garage. So she decided to pony up $23,000 for a used Honda HR-V, with a $410 monthly payment.
Maisano also said she was worried, in light of a national epidemic of Hyundai and Kia thefts, about her Kia being stolen when left outdoors. Many vehicles being recalled for potential fires also are at risk of being stolen if parked outside because they lack theft-deterrent devices.
FILE - A 2013 Kia Optima is displayed at the Chicago Auto Show in Chicago on Feb. 9, 2012. In September, 2023, Hyundai and Kia issued a recall of 3.4 million of its vehicles in the United States, including the 2013 Kia Optima. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
FILE - A 2013 Hyundai Elantra Coupe is shown at the Chicago Auto Show in Chicago on Feb. 8, 2012. In September, 2023, Hyundai and Kia issued a recall of 3.4 million of its vehicles in the United States, including the 2013 Hyundai Elantra. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
Millions of recalled Hyundai and Kia vehicles with a dangerous defect remain on the road
Millions of recalled Hyundai and Kia vehicles with a dangerous defect remain on the road
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Ninela Radicevic still can't comprehend that her daughter is never coming back.
The 11-year-old Ana Bozovic had just arrived to her school in central Belgrade last year when another pupil, 13 at the time, came in and opened fire at anyone standing in his way.
Bozovic, two other girls and a school guard were killed immediately in the corridor. The teenage shooter then went on to a nearby classroom and turned his gun on the pupils and the teacher inside.
A total of 10 people were killed. Eight children and a school guard died, and seven people were wounded at the school on the morning of May 3, 2023. One of the wounded, a child, died from injuries later.
The shooting stunned Serbia. The Balkan nation was no stranger to violent crime, but mass shootings are rare and one hadn't taken place at a school before.
Further shock followed just a day later, when a 20-year-old man went on a shooting rampage outside the capital. He killed nine and wounded 12 others, mostly young people.
For Radicevic time stopped on the morning she lost her little girl. She believes the entire country too had to grind to a halt after such an unthinkable crime. Instead, she told The Associated Press, “everyone rushed to forget.”
Her eyes torn with grief, Radicevic spoke to the AP at the family home in Belgrade. Photos by her side show a wide-eyed girl with long brown hair, who loved sports and dancing, and kept medals from competitions above her bed.
“We forget tragic events too quickly,” Radicevic said. “This habit of pushing everything under the carpet has to end.”
People, she said, "had to recognize the importance and the tragedy of that moment."
Bozovic’s room in the apartment remains intact — a world map is hanging on the wall and her stuffed animal toys are on the bed. A huge framed photo poster of her standing upside down in her judo outfit fills the room. The desk is still as she left it, paper drawings and messages are hanging from the wall.
Radicevic, a 49-year-old clinical researcher, has led an effort to keep the memory alive of all the children killed in Belgrade's Vladislav Ribnikar school and the two villages near the capital, so something like that won't happen again.
“All we (parents) have been doing is fighting to make sure that May 3rd is not forgotten, to give some meaning to our children’s sacrifice,” said Radicevic, who also has a 17-year-old son. “They are the victims. But victims of what?”
Many in Serbia have been asking the same question before the grim anniversary on Friday that will be marked with an all-day commemoration ceremony near the school, including art installations, discussions with experts and video films about the victims.
The program is dubbed “Awakening,” an apparent call for self-reckoning and introspection in a nation that is yet to come to terms with its role in multiple wars in the 1990s and the culture of violence that has prevailed ever since.
The slain children's parents have been closely involved in the preparations. They have fought to have the school closed and turned into a memorial center, organized protests and remembrance events, and testified about their ordeal to promote awareness among the public.
“The fact that children returned to that same school only a week later, also on a Wednesday, for the same set of classes, tells you that the state wanted to quickly create a sense of normalcy," Radicevic said.
“What had to happen is that Serbia had to stop that May 3rd regardless of the state support,” she insisted. "We had to stop, to think, to find out what we had done wrong, to say OK, we have made mistakes, let’s accept it and see how we continue from tomorrow, how this society will get better.”
Serbia's populist government launched a gun crackdown, collecting about 80,000 weapons and rounds of ammunition. State-backed support teams offered counseling, and police officers were deployed outside Serbia's schools for security.
The shooters were both apprehended. The teenage boy's parents went on trial, charged with teaching their underage son to shoot and for not securing the weapons at the family home.
The trial against the village shooter and his father has yet to start in May in the central town of Smederevo, more than a year after the massacres in Malo Orasje and Dubona that left the two villages paralyzed with mourning and sadness.
Shock and anger because of the shootings last year triggered months of street protests demanding resignations of top officials and a ban on mainstream media that spew hate speech and intolerance. A year later, critics say not much has changed.
Psychology professor Dragan Popadic, however, believes it has. The trauma, he said, created a sense of fear and insecurity that hadn't been there in the past and prompted activism. But people aren't ready for a more radical insight, Popadic added.
“These cases of violence are only tips of an organism that was born in the 1990s and which has grown and strengthened,” he said. "Until we deal with the organism itself ... we won’t be able to comprehend the situation we are in.”
Radicevic said Serbia missed a “last chance for a catharsis." Most people were just relieved that “it wasn't mine (their child)" and moved on, she said.
“A week later other children went to see where it (shooting) had happened," she said. “I am sorry, but I think that is not normal.”
In this photo taken on Saturday, April 27, 2024, framed photographs of Ana Bozovic, a slain elementary school student, are on display in her family living room in Belgrade, Serbia. The 11-year-old Ana Bozovic had just arrived to her school in central Belgrade last year when another pupil, 13 at the time, came in and opened fire at anyone standing in his way. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
In this photo taken on Saturday, April 27, 2024, Ninela Radicevic, 49, the mother of Ana Bozovic, a slain elementary school student, sits in her living room in Belgrade, Serbia. The 11-year-old Ana Bozovic had just arrived to her school in central Belgrade last year when another pupil, 13 at the time, came in and opened fire at anyone standing in his way. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
In this photo taken on Saturday, April 27, 2024, a framed photograph of Ana Bozovic, a slain elementary school student, sits above her bed in Belgrade, Serbia. The 11-year-old Ana Bozovic had just arrived to her school in central Belgrade last year when another pupil, 13 at the time, came in and opened fire at anyone standing in his way. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
FILE - Flowers and toys are placed for the victims near the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 4, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire at the school on the morning of May 3, 2023. Eight children and a school guard died, and seven people were wounded. One of the wounded, a child, died from injuries later. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)
FILE - Police officers guard the Vladimir Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 4, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire at the school on the morning of May 3, 2023. Eight children and a school guard died, and seven people were wounded. One of the wounded, a child, died from injuries later. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)
FILE - People light candles for the victims near the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire at the school on the morning of May 3, 2023. Eight children and a school guard died, and seven people were wounded. One of the wounded, a child, died from injuries later. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
FILE - People hold candles for the victims near the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire at the school on the morning of May 3, 2023. Eight children and a school guard died, and seven people were wounded. One of the wounded, a child, died from injuries later. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut, File)
FILE - A woman hugs a girl near the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire at the school on the morning of May 3, 2023. Eight children and a school guard died, and seven people were wounded. One of the wounded, a child, died from injuries later. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut, File)
FILE - Police officers block the streets surrounding the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire at the school on the morning of May 3, 2023. Eight children and a school guard died, and seven people were wounded. One of the wounded, a child, died from injuries later. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)
FILE - Police block streets around the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. A teenage boy opened fire at the school on the morning of May 3, 2023. Eight children and a school guard died, and seven people were wounded. One of the wounded, a child, died from injuries later. A total of 10 people were killed. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)
