The government is “ready” to cooperate with parliament to find a solution to the issue of cars with faulty airbags remaining on Cyprus’ roads, Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades said on Thursday.
Addressing the House transport committee, he said he favours the addition of airbag safety checks to MOT inspections, thus meaning that cars with faulty airbags would be unable to attain MOT certificates and therefore be unable to be driven on the road.
To this end, he said a meeting will be held before the end of the week between MPs and the road transport department with the aim of “appropriately formulating the wording” of the legislation which will make this proposal law.
These suggestions will then likely be co-opted into the bill on the matter proposed by Disy MPs Kyriacos Hadjiyiannis and Nikos Sykas. Their bill foresees checks for unsuitable or defective airbag components during MOT testing and upon the registration in Cyprus of any new or imported used vehicle.
Speaking after the committee meeting, Vafeades said there was “unanimity to proceed” with the two MPs’ bill, and that therefore the meeting he has planned will have the aim of “simplifying” its wording and allowing it to be “implemented more easily”.
However, he said, the bill in question “only solves one part of the problem”, with further government action to resolve issues faced by people who already own cars which may have faulty airbags to be announced “very soon”.
With this in mind, he said his ministry is “studying” the matter of the costs involved in the recall process, and said he expects “specific suggestions” from the road transport department regarding the arrangement of alternative transportation for people who have their cars recalled due to faulty airbags.
He added that his ministry has “sent all the data” to car dealerships and “asked them to check” whether the models they have sold contain airbags which have been subject to recall orders, and then inform the public about them.
Committee chairman and Dipa MP Marinos Mousiouttas said that should all things go to plan in the meeting, the bill will be ready to be put before a plenary session of parliament next Thursday.
The bill’s co-author Nikos Sykas is also chairman of the House commerce committee, and told that committee earlier this month that thousands of cars on Cyprus’ roads may have defective airbags.
He said the road transport department had informed him that there are around 12,000 cars on Cyprus’ roads which are equipped with faulty airbags made by Takata, a company which faced a worldwide recall campaign.
However, he said, this figure only covers vehicles imported from the United Kingdom and the European Union, and “no one knows” how many cars imported from other countries are equipped with faulty Takata airbags.
Additionally, he said, despite the fact that dealerships had given assurances that they would not charge for checks on airbags in cars they were selling, some people had complained they were being charged as much as €160 and then told their airbags were faulty.
He did note, however, that there is no law which obliges dealerships not to charge for the service.
Green MP Stavros Papadouris said he had asked for a website to be created, which would allow consumers to see for themselves whether their car has been subjected to a recall order.
He also said there may be a number of cars on Cyprus’ roads which have been subject to recall orders regarding their brakes or other parts, and that there will be “consequences” for these potential defects.
The issue of faulty Takata airbags has been ongoing for almost two years, with it believed that the death of 24-year-old Kyriakos Oxynos in January 2023 was caused in part by a faulty airbag.
The fault is related to exposure to high levels of heat or humidity, with Takata airbags having a tendency to explode when released under such circumstances. This then shoots the airbag’s metal inflator outwards and in the direction of the person it was designed to protect, potentially causing further injuries or, in some cases, death.
