Last summer, "Dateline" reported on allegations involving the Nisson Altima 1994 and early 1995 models in which passengers had suffered permanent eye injuries, allegedly caused by passenger-side airbags. There are still 200,000 of these cars on the road, raising some serious concerns - though Nissan denied there was a safety defect. But just last month, the company decided to offer a free replacement airbag. NBC's Chris Hansen has that story.

IT WAS a video that first caught our attention, a government test of the 1994 passenger-side airbag of the Nissan Altima. What's startling is the way the airbag appears to punch the passenger in the eyes.
Baron: "You can see the bag, in the shape of an arm, coming out of the dashboard, driving into the occupant's eyeballs."

Attorney Lawrence Baron told us the same kind of impact caused numerous, permanent eye injuries in people like Norma Brainard. She was a passenger in her 1994 Altima when it struck a curb, causing her airbag to deploy. She permanently lost the vision in her left eye.

Norma: "It was like a boxing glove. I mean, it just came at me so fast and so hard."

In all, "Dateline's" investigation documented 29 people with permanent eye injuries, most of them legally blinded in at least one eye, all passengers in 1994 Altimas or early model 1995 Altimas, which have the same airbag design. Rogers Ray is legally blind in both eyes.

Rogers: "I should have been able to take the seatbelt off, walk out of that car and gone on with the rest of my life."

Malcolm Wheeler, an attorney for Nissan, defended the airbag.

Wheeler: "It's been saving lives at a wonderful rate, it's been preventing really terrible injuries like brain injuries and quadriplegia and paraplegia at a really wonderful rate."

Nissan told us the Altima's rate of eye injury was really no different from other vehicles, including later model Altimas with a redesigned airbag.

Wheeler: "As best we can tell, the rates are comparable.

Hansen: "Comparable."

Wheeler: "Right."

But "Dateline" found that the rate of complaints of face and eye injuries with the 1994/early 1995 Altima were much higher than those in comparable cars. And after "Dateline" began asking questions, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into the 1994/early 1995 Altima passenger-side airbag.

Late last month, after refusing for years to recall its airbag, Nissan suddenly reversed itself. While still insisting its airbag has "no safety related defect," Nissan announced it would replace - free of charge - all the passenger side airbags in 1994/early 1995 Altimas, with bags the company says "will reduce the overall risk of inflation-related injuries."

Consumer activists like Joan Claybrook welcomes the voluntary recall, but she stops way short of commending Nissan.

Claybrook: "I give Nissan no credit whatsoever. Nissan tried to avoid this. They misled. They delayed. People were injured in the meantime. And I think the company should be condemned for its behavior."

The government said Nissan's plan to replace the airbags addressed it's safety concerns and closed it's investigation. Experts estimate the recall could cost Nissan anywhere from $50 million to $100 million.