By Quanecia Fraser

    OMAHA, Nebraska (KETV) -- Every year, air bags save thousands of lives. And it's crucial that every air bag works in each car sold.

"All of these systems, you have sensors throughout the car that are bolted to different places that sense impacted and they're tuned to a very specific velocity, impact, jolt — whatever it takes to set off an airbag," said John Reeves, the chief strategy officer for B Street Collision. "And so they are designed for the car to crush the way the car is supposed to crush."

But with one car at B Street Collision in Irvington, there's the possibility that multiple air bags inside will not go off properly.

"This is the worst one I've seen. This is just really, really egregious," Reeves said.

Reeves showed KETV Investigates the structural damage on the car.

"The reason this rail even looks slightly smooth is they've covered it in body filler. So basically, a plastic material. They've covered it in that to make it look smooth. And then up here, the repair didn't even hold, and the plastic filler cracked off. And you can see that the rail is still torn. See this big hole? That's not supposed to be there," he said.

He showed another area of concern as well.

"A side curtain airbag comes down right here. It rips the headliner. So, it's designed to rip right here. It is made weak — the headliner is right here, in order to rip. They've epoxied it back together," Reeves said, adding that the headliner should have been replaced completely.

Reeves said the car was previously in a crash, and insurance deemed it a total loss. The insurance company sent the vehicle to a car auctioning company, who then sold the car to a dealership. That dealership tried to make repairs to the vehicle's structural damage and then sold it to the customer under a rebuilt title.

"Where you'll see this is in that secondary market, the used car dealership, if it says anything about rebuilt title," Reeves said.

Nebraska Auto Body Association Vice Chairman Ryan Clark says this is becoming more common.

"The manufacturers do have repair guidelines on how they want to do it. However, there's no police per say, to say, 'This is repaired correctly' or not," he said.

But under a proposed bill by Grand Island State Sen. Dan Quick, a car like the one at B Street Collision that's considered structurally totaled would get a salvage-branded certificate title instead of a rebuilt title.

"It's really just consumer safety. It's advocating for the consumer," said Clark, who supports the bill.

Reeves also supports the bill. But in the meantime, he's urging consumers to do their homework when looking to buy a used car with a re-built title. One way to do that, is by looking up the car's VIN number on the internet.

"People should really be suspicious when you're looking at a car that has a rebuilt title. If nothing else, Google it, see if you can find some images of it, know what you're looking at," Reeves said.

The bill has not made it out of committee. But Sen. Quick's office says they'll continue to work on the bill in the next legislative session.

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