Hawaii has filed a lawsuit against three major automobile manufacturers, saying they knowingly sold cars with dangerous air bags.

Meanwhile many of the state’s residents are still driving cars with the volatile air bags as they wait for replacement parts to arrive.

The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs’ Office of Consumer Protection said Wednesday it filed a lawsuit against Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and Ford Motor Co. for unlawful practices in connection with marketing and sales of vehicles in Hawaii with dangerous air bags made by Tokyo-based Takata Corp.

“Nissan, Toyota and Ford knew, or should have known, for more than a decade … the air bags installed in their cars could explode, posing grave and sometimes fatal dangers to the cars’ occupants,” said Stephen Levins, executive director of the Office of Consumer Protection, at a press conference Wednesday.

Levins said “well in excess of 30,000” Hawaii drivers are particularly at risk because of the state’s environment. Hawaii’s humidity can affect the chemicals used to inflate the air bags, causing them to explode with too much force, rupturing their steel containers and sending shrapnel through the vehicle.

“Here in Hawaii, we’re ground zero for danger associated with these air bags,” Levins said. Some of the older vehicles, models issued in 2002 through 2006, have a 50 percent chance of having their airbag inflators rupture during a crash.

But despite being ground zero for Takata air bag malfunctions, there are currently few options for residents who want to change out their air bags.

Drivers can check safercar.gov to see if their vehicle is affected and contact their dealer as soon as possible to get the air bags replaced for free.

Some Hawaii drivers have called Hawaii dealerships asking for their car to be repaired and have been forced to wait as the dealer doesn’t have enough parts to switch out the air bag.

Diane Chong, Makiki resident, said she has called Servco Toyota Honolulu five times over the past year to fix her daughter’s Toyota Corolla and the dealership told her parts won’t be available until September at the earliest.

“She cannot let anyone in her front passenger seat because of the possibility of the air bag exploding and causing injury or worse,” she said. “I am frustrated and I am worried that the air bag might even injure my daughter in the driver side.”

Chong is not the only driver local dealerships aren’t able to help. Levins said because of the tremendous number of vehicles — 42 million — in the U.S. that are affected by the recall, the car manufacturers are having a difficult time keeping up with demand.

Levins said while waiting for the parts to arrive, Hawaii consumers are faced with the option to operate an extremely dangerous vehicle, disable the air bag or stop using their car.

“None of these choices is really viable or good,” Levins said. “Contact the dealership as often as possible to get this done. Particularly if you have an older car because a disproportionate number of these ruptures have occurred in the older vehicles.”

Levins said Toyota, Nissan and Ford should be offering loaner vehicles to affected Hawaii residents, as Honda Motor Co. Ltd. recently announced it would do for cars with faulty Takata air bags. Honda said earlier this month that 26,000 Honda car owners are driving cars with faulty air bags.

Nissan and Ford declined to comment when reached Wednesday afternoon and asked how they would accommodate drivers with the dangerous air bags.

Toyota representatives did not respond.

Takata air bags have been linked to 11 deaths in the U.S. and more than a hundred injuries. Levins said he did not know of any cases where drivers were injured or killed because of Takata air bags in Hawaii.

The lawsuit filed in First Circuit Court by the state Office of Consumer Protection is seeking the maximum civil penalty of $10,000 per violation.

Levins said if the state wins, car owners could get a portion of the payment to cover any expenses, such as rental car costs, they incurred due to the recall.

The state alleged the automakers used air bags with ammonium nitrate inflators, despite publicly available information warning the chemical was unstable, because the product was less expensive than alternatives.

“They used it because it was cheaper, saved a few dollars for the car manufacturers to market this dangerous product to consumers here in Hawaii,” Levins said. “This ammonium nitrate is very unstable when it is in an environment such as ours.”

In May 2016, Hawaii filed the first state lawsuit against Honda and Takata for intentionally selling cars that were made with the dangerous air bags.

“Despite the efforts of Takata to dispose of this case, to dismiss the case, we defeated all of their efforts last October and the case is ongoing,” Levins said.