General Motors has issued a recall of 12,662 2009 Cadillac CTS luxury vehicles from a problem that may cause the front passenger-side airbag to disable.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Under certain conditions, a software condition within the passenger-sensing system may disable the front passenger airbag when it should be enabled or enable it when it should be disabled. In a vehicle crash, if the front passenger airbag does not operate as designed, increased personal injury could occur.”

GM said it became aware of the problem between July 24 and September 23, 2008 when four test fleet vehicles were reported to have the passenger airbag status “off” light illuminated while the front passenger seat was occupied. The recall will begin on November 18, 2008.

Cadillac dealers will reprogram the system module that controls the passenger-sensing system for free.

Nissan Motor Co  will recall 204,361 cars from its 2007 and 2008 model years in the United States because a passenger side airbag could fail to deploy properly in an accident.

The voluntary recall covers 2007 and 2008 Nissan Altima, Altima Coupe, 350Z, Murano and Rogue; and Infiniti G35 Sedan, G37 Coupe and EX35 built from March 12, 2007 to May 27, 2008, the company said in a notice to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Nissan said it began to investigate the issue in November 2007 after receiving several warranty reports of airbag warning lamps flashing. In late September, Nissan determined that a safety-related defect existed and it should conduct a recall.

In some vehicles, the passenger side airbag could fail to receive a proper signal and a supplemental airbag warning light could flash and a status light would illuminate to warn the driver that it is not working properly.

Nissan believes less than 1 percent of the vehicles actually contain the defect. It plans to test the vehicles and replace the hardware if necessary. The recall is expected to begin November 3.

New York City’s effort to increase fuel efficiency has hit a significant snag. The Ford Escape Hybrid, which many NYC taxi fleets chose to replace the venerable Crown Victoria, doesn’t react very well in a crash.

A new report by a noted automotive engineer exposes several safety hazards of hybrid taxis in New York City, including rollovers as well as other safety-related concerns.

The report found several safety hazards, many of which can be attributed to the unintended use of the Ford Escape Hybrid — a standard passenger vehicle with a three star crash rating — as a New York City taxicab. In analyzing the rollover accident, the report found:

• The side-curtain airbag did not deploy normally due to insufficient space between the partition and the top of the car.
• The L-shaped partition interfered with the 3-point unibelt because it changed the anchoring position of the belt.
• The partition did not stay in place during the crash and may have resulted in a violent head strike against the hard partition if there had been a passenger in the right front seat.

A direct result of these findings means that NYC’s mandates likely won’t be enforced next month.