the essential
A new information campaign covering around twenty brands of cars equipped with the Takata “killer airbag” overseas has just been launched by the Ministry of Transport. However, in France, there have been serious accidents linked to this defective equipment. Stellantis estimates that it has carried out 87% of repairs on C3 and DS3 models in France since the end of the year.
Will we have finished with the defective Takata airbag scandal? Over the months, the list of car manufacturers equipped with this protective airbag, manufactured by the Japanese firm and the cause of numerous fatal accidents, has grown a little longer.
On Wednesday January 8, the Ministry of Transport launched a vast recall campaign on more than twenty brands (Citroën, Ford, BMW, Audi, Seat, Opel, Volkswagen, etc.), cars manufactured between 1998 and 2019 and equipped with these famous Japanese airbags.
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According to the ministry, this equipment “can cause serious or even fatal injuries to the driver and front passenger.” A preventive campaign launched exclusively towards overseas motorists and which would concern several tens of thousands of vehicles. The cocktail of heat and high humidity would cause more risks of explosions in these overseas departments. After the worrying “stop drive” launched in France last May by the Stellantis group, owner of Citroën, on C3 and DS3, manufactured between 2009 and 2019, (530,000 to 600,000 vehicles affected worldwide, more of 246,000 in France, Stellantis figures), the list of cars truly targeted raises questions. And one may wonder why this latest recall, initiated by the Ministry of Transport, is not extended to the entire national territory.
Death in the Hautes-Pyrénées
On November 18, 2023, in Galan, (Hautes-Pyrénées), a 51-year-old motorist, driving her Citroën C3, lost her life after her airbag was triggered, following a collision with another vehicle. “The investigation is still ongoing and the parents of this man still have no answer as to the reasons for this death, more than a year later,” regrets the lawyer for the victim’s parents, Me Christophe Lèguevaques. The Tarbes public prosecutor’s office has not opened a judicial investigation.
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As the lawyer points out, Hautes-Pyrénées is not an overseas department and this type of tragedy can occur in any geographical area. Contacted, the press service of the Ministry of Transport specifies that the State “has asked to extend the recall of these vehicles to the north of France”. Furthermore, “in overseas territories, the recalls launched by the various manufacturers are for the most part old and the recall rates remain very insufficient. The Ministry has therefore launched this communication campaign in these territories, in order to raise awareness among motorists who would not have yet had their airbags changed”, insists the ministry. In this context, would Stellantis have underestimated the dangers of its airbags or concealed their extent?
This is what the Radio France investigation unit suggests which, last Tuesday, revealed that “half a million motorists are affected by the recall of their potentially dangerous vehicle”. There have been 15 deaths in France linked to Takata airbags. As early as 2016, “experts from the Stellantis group raised awareness on the subject,” specifies the investigation unit.
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It is furthermore following these latest revelations that the authorities simultaneously launched the recall of vehicles in the overseas territories. The management of this scandal in the automobile industry was handled differently across the Atlantic.
In the United States, in the mid-2000s, the Takata explosion broke out thanks to whistleblowers. Vehicle recalls then concern all states of the country, regardless of the type of climate, in 2014. “The killer airbag” caused the death of 27 motorists and ultimately, the bankruptcy of the Japanese equipment manufacturer. The problem is revealed: when the gas is ejected which inflates the protective cushions, the entire part bursts, releasing metal particles and ammonium nitrate, an unstable and dangerous gas. Premature aging of the mechanism is often the cause. Despite alerts in Reunion and Guadeloupe, in 2021 and 2022.
Today, Stellantis claims to have repaired 200,000 vehicles in France with an intervention rate that reaches 87% in France. The firm has launched a race against time to correct the situation by also intervening at home, doubling production rates and producing new airbags. Before his ouster, the former boss of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, had promised, last September, to resolve “80% of the problem by the end of December 2024”, while apologizing.
