A loophole has allowed for deadly Takata airbags to be installed in some Australian cars

Chris Daglis

For Information

September 2020 Susie Campbell

0415 448 007

The Race Is On To Find 250,000 Missing Faulty Takata Airbags Lurking In Aussie Recycling Yards

The Takata Airbag safety recall – the largest recall the world has ever seen, yet since it first hit the media back in 2009 now some eleven years on, manufactures’ are still hunting for a staggering 250,000, the majority of which, are likely to be sat in recycling yards ready to be fitted to an unsuspecting driver’s vehicle.

With a death only last year in Australia along with a serious injury, these airbags still pose a real risk to driver safety. And now with the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission’s (ACCC’s) deadline of December this year to find them, the clock is ticking.

But it is not the registered, ‘on the road’ vehicles that are proving the toughest to locate. The challenge comes when a car is scrapped and sent to an automotive recycling facility or wrecking yard.

The Assistant Minister to the Treasurer, the Hon Michael Sukkar, issued a compulsory recall in 2018, because, based on extensive evidence not only were the airbags highly dangerous, one or more suppliers of vehicles with defective Takata airbags had not taken satisfactory action to prevent those vehicles causing injury to drivers and/or passengers.

In Australia:

· 27 Aussie car manufacturers were affected by the Takata recall

· As of Jan 2020, 250,000 affected airbags remain at large

· Replacement rates for suppliers conducting voluntary recalls varied significantly, ranging from between 36 per cent to over 84 per cent.

Chris Daglis Automotive Industry expert and MD of All Auto Recalls explains;

“Our traceability systems map vehicle manufacturer recalls to vehicles held by the auto recyclers we work with. We’ve helped 11 vehicle manufacturers account for in excess of 60,000 affected Takata Airbag Inflators in the past 24 months. By tracing for manufacturers, we reduce risk, increase confidence and ensure consumer safety. Since our recent engagement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) we found over 500 airbags within two days, compared to only 130 in the previous 18 months of their hunt. It’s critical that we join the dots between vehicle manufacturer and auto recyclers to improve traceability to avoid this in the future and ensure faulty parts do not ‘disappear’ into the system,” says Chris.

The ACCC has ruled that all manufacturers are to locate and destroy all remaining airbags or risk facing severe penalties if they cannot confidently demonstrate that they have made every effort to locate them.

Grant Walker Parts, based in Melbourne has been working with Chris and explains how it is still possible for a recycler to unwittingly sell on a faulty part if their processes do not facilitate a robust tracing system but is adamant that this is no excuse when it comes to safety.

“All recyclers have the opportunity to manage the traceability of second-hand parts to ensure that whenever a part is sold or accepted, it can be traced and know if it’s subject to a safety recall at any time today or in the future. It’s imperative that are able to contact the new owner of the part and equally, destroy parts we hold, when subject to recalls such as the Takata airbags. Our yard has found 282 Takata airbags and with the help of Chris and the All Auto Recalls team, traced another 12 that were fitted to customer’s vehicles. We’ve been contacting these customers to tell them they need to contact the vehicle manufacturer to replace the faulty airbag,” explains Justin Walker, General Manager of Grant Walker Parts.

“With ACCC now declaring the recall of 20,000 cars nationally as ‘critical’ it is incumbent on VicRoads to get dangerous vehicles off the roads and prevent them from being fitted second-hand and leaving a recycling yard. The classification of ‘critical’ by ACCC is particularly alarming, as this means that the manufacturers have identified the fitted airbags as being particularly dangerous should they activate,” says CEO of VACC, Geoff Gwilym.

Most of the 20,000 critical ‘missing’ vehicles are produced by BMW, Holden, Honda, Mitsubishi and Toyota.

/Public Release.