Side airbag goes off in St. Clair Shores woman's Chevy car for no reason

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A frightening ordeal for a driver in St. Clair Shores - her passenger side airbag suddenly exploded for no reason.

Laretta Maiorana was driving along Harper when she heard a loud bang - it was so deafening she thought someone was shooting at her car. 

"I was looking at the door to see if there was a hole and then I was kind of touching myself to see if there was any blood," she said. 

Maiorana thought maybe some fired a shot, or someone hit her. But that wasn't it. 

"When I looked over then the airbag was right here and it was smoking and that's when I realized it was the airbag," she said.

The side-seat airbag in her 2010 Chevy Malibu deployed, she says for no reason at all. 
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"So that's it hanging out of the side of the seat there," she said, showing a photo of the airbag.

Photos taken after the incident show no sign of a collision. She says she didn't hit a pothole or stop quick - which has been documented to cause random deployment in some vehicles. 

"They are not supposed to go off unless you are in an accident," she said. "I mean I have no idea how something like that would happen."

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration - some 2010 Malibus have had recalls including one in January for random deployment of the front driver's side airbag. Loretta's is the side airbag. 

But there are no open recalls for Laretta's car. 

"It just happened, just out of nowhere," she said.

A spokesperson with General Motors tells FOX 2 they are investigating the claim. They don't have a diagnostic work up yet to determine what happened.

It's unclear if the airbag in her Malibu is made by Takata - their products have been linked to tens of millions of recalls for airbags exploding during deployment spewing shrapnel. 

Laretta made it out uninjured, but she's left with fear it could happen again. 

"If that one went off for whatever reason will the others do the same thing," she said.