Thousands of vehicles in Cyprus may be circulating with defective airbags, since the process of checking them has not yet been completed following the announcement of their recall, as reported in a session of the Parliamentary Committee on Commerce.
The matter was discussed on Tuesday in the Parliamentary Trade Committee, during the general discussion of the issue of the recall of defective products and it was decided that the Committee should closely deal with the issue of the application of the already existing legislation and the ability of the government agencies to exercise effective controls.
The Chairman of the Committee, DISY Member of Parliament Nikos Sykas stated that the safety of the citizens is further endangered, after the improper control, the confusion between services and the state, especially in the airbags, was confirmed at the meeting. He added that there are thousands of cars on the road that have not been recalled for airbag issues, as well as other vehicles without European standards.
He added that the discussion will continue because the matter is very serious and DISY considers that the safety of citizens is a priority and said that they have called on the relevant Ministries "to finally put in place a process of detection and control".
AKEL Member of Parliament Kostas Kostas said that while there is probably another death from a faulty airbag a few days ago, the authorities heard "the same thing again". He added that they did not receive clear answers from the Department of Road Transport (TOM) because it does not inform the owners about the airbags and expects from the companies.
He added that as TOM informed them, in the last decade they have had 55,000 cases of airbag recalls, 52,000 have been updated, 33,000 have been corrected and there are restrictions in 8,0000 cases. Today, he said, around 15,000 recall cases are pending and 12,000 cars are circulating in Cyprus with Takata airbags that will need to be replaced. However, he said that this number only applies to cars from England and the EU and no one knows what the number is for cars imported from other countries.
He also said that while dealerships had assured that they would not charge for an airbag check there had been complaints that some were charging €160 to be told their airbag was a Takata one. However, as he said, there is no legislation that obliges them not to charge.
He called on all authorities to find the solution to replace all the defective airbags that have caused injuries and confirmed deaths. He added that the state has the responsibility to protect the citizens.
As stated after the Committee session by DIKO Member of Parliament Chrysis Pantelidis, while the relevant European directive is clear and the Cypriot legislation harmonized, there is a problem in the implementation and the degree of recall of such defective products in practice.
He noted that around 10.000-12.000 vehicles may have faulty airbags, with the numbers possibly higher as these numbers only refer to vehicles imported into the EU according to European standards.
While he said owners of vehicles with defective airbags were either informed by the companies or by announcements, the inspection process has not been completed. He added that the Commission will deal with the implementation of legislation and the ability and capability of government agencies to exercise effective control and make sure that defective products are not on the market.
He also called on those who have such models and charge them for these checks to report it to the consumer service.
The Member of Parliament of the Environmentalists Movement, Stavros Papadouris, said that while last year they had discussed the matter, a year later they are still looking and not all the evidence is available, since not all the cars are below European standards.
He also said that they have asked for a website to be made that guides the consumer to check for himself whether his car falls under the recall process.
He also said that there are people who have been informed and have not proceeded to replace their airbag, since it was found that in some cases there is a fee to simply check the car, amounting to 150 euros.
He also mentioned that there may currently be several cars on our roads with recalls on brakes, airbags and elsewhere, with all the consequences this has.