Filenews 31 January 2025 - by Angelos Nicolaou
The Ministry of Transport is not planning to stop all 84,000 vehicles, new and used, currently on the roads carrying faulty Takata airbags. This will depend solely on the manufacturer's recommendation.
Therefore, the relevant decrees that will come into effect from February 3 will only give an immediate stop directive for those vehicles deemed by manufacturers to have a significantly higher risk of injury or death. For other cases, vehicle owners will be encouraged to implement recalls quickly.
It is noted that legislation comes into force today to ensure that all necessary restrictive measures are taken by vehicle owners, distributors, manufacturers, manufacturers' representatives and importers to recall motor vehicles with defective or inappropriate parts for the purposes of protecting road safety and public health. On the basis of this legislation, next Monday, February 3rd, the Minister of Transport will issue four decrees and one circular regarding the recall of Takata airbags in Cyprus.
Based on the data to date – which vary every day depending on vehicle recalls by car manufacturers – there are 84,000 new and used cars on Cypriot roads with inappropriate Takata airbags. The final decrees are before the Legal Service for legislative scrutiny before they are published.
With the data so far, one of the biggest concerns of all those who have been informed that their vehicles have inappropriate airbags and is considering whether they will be immobilized, seems to have been overcome. Specifically, immobilization until the exchange of the airbag will apply only to vehicles that the manufacturer has given a "Do Not Drive" instruction due to the risk of exploding this type of airbag and even causing death to the passengers. Therefore, if vehicle manufacturers urge their drivers not to drive them until they are repaired, the Department of Road Transport will recommend against using them.
It is noted that the Minister of Transport, Alexis Vafeadis, informed yesterday for the second time this week the members of the parliamentary committee on transport about the changes that will exist from next Monday with the issuance of the decrees. The Minister was given the opportunity to explain the European regulation and legislation in force, as well as developments in relation to contacts with distributors, as well as what he expects from the Legal Service in order to proceed with the issuance of the relevant decrees.
Ministerial decrees are called upon to manage the recall of vehicles, the restriction or not of their use and the role that each party involved should play. The instructions of the decrees will be temporary, they will manage the urgency of the situation and when the revocations are implemented, all the provisions of Regulation 2018/858 will have to be applied.
The Minister informed yesterday about two developments concerning the implementation of the recall as soon as possible and the restoration of the public information chain, even with some delay.
The decrees will also address the issue of issuing a certificate upon importation or transfer of a vehicle so that they are free from revocation. This certificate will be delivered during the inspection of the MOT, so that the TFT system knows that the owner of the vehicle has been informed that there is no recall.
It is noted that today 1,500 certificates are issued per day, of which 60% concern used vehicles and based on a decree to be issued, the certificate will be received by the distributor or the manufacturer's representative, a provision with which the distributors disagree.
Another element that emerges is what distributors will do with the thousands of airbags needed for replacement. Dealers said they have the ability to order a large number of new airbags, but are unable to know whether vehicle owners will apply for replacements. It is noted that, in the case of the 20,000 used cars from outside the European Union, Mazda Demio and Honda, only 7,000 in the former and 3,000 in the latter, owners requested a replacement. Therefore, while they urge all owners to apply for a recall, some refuse despite the risks they may run.
In recent days, the Department of Road Transportation has stepped up efforts to identify vehicles involved in the global Takata airbag recall. Already, following the information that the names of the dealers who cooperate and those who refuse will be made public, another company has submitted to the TFT the problems it has identified in importer cars that carry airbags that present a serious risk, as the ability to activate them in the event of an accident can be dangerous for the health of passengers.
