eFM News

[Anchor]

The vice transport minister and ruling party lawmakers have called in BMW Korea Chairman Kim Hyo-joon to discuss the growing number of BMW car fires in the country.

The emergency meeting held this morning was to focus on finding ways to prevent further fires and calm public concerns.

Claudia Kim has more.

[Reporter]

Public unrest is growing with the mounting number of BMW vehicle blazes that are being reported on local roads.

Another fire was reported last night involving a 520d sedan driving along Misadaero in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province.

This latest case raises the number of BMW fire incidents to 38.

The transport ministry and members of the parliamentary transport committee are calling on BMW Korea to come up with additional measures to deal with the issue.

The government is expected to discuss how realistic it would be to order a ban on driving BMW cars that have not been inspected or have been ruled as a threat.

The German carmaker issued a voluntary recall late last month for some 106,000 vehicles subject to possible engine defects and was expected to carry out inspections on all affected cars by tomorrow.

However, as of last Friday only some 56,000 cars had been checked for safety and among them, 10 percent were reported to have failed inspections.

With BMW models that weren't subject to the recall catching fire and a car that was already inspected catching fire on the road, doubts are growing whether the exhaust gas recirculation component is the real problem as initially pointed out.

Meanwhile, police have started to gather testimonies from BMW owners to find out if the German carmaker tried to hide a serious safety defect in its cars.

Claudia Kim, eFM News.■