Although a national campaign was launched for overseas territories at the beginning of January, several vehicles could go under the radar.
Unfilled lists
Charles-Henri Coppet, lawyer specializing in personal injury law who supports victims and families of victims in cases involving defective airbags:
It must be understood that chronologically a first list, a first table, was provided on January 9, 2025 which included 19 marks indicating whether the vehicles were infected or not. Today, a fix was made and we realize that for the DOM, there is no list at all. Which means that, for example, in Guadeloupe, out of the 25 existing brands distributed, there are only 15 manufacturers who gave the figures for Guadeloupe. Which means that the people who made the checks before without there being any distinction between Guadeloupe or France made checks which were false since there were no Guadeloupe figures two weeks ago as there was no there are no more today. So that means that people who checked two weeks ago, it's in their interest to check again.
Mr. Coppet’s office specifies that:
– 15 brands are verifiable out of 25 in Guadeloupe
– 13 brands are verifiable out of 25 in Guyana
– 11 brands are verifiable out of 25 in Martinique
-– 11 brands are verifiable out of 25 in Reunion
And when the verification link is not available, the words “link not provided by the manufacturer” are indicated.
For management by public authorities
Charles-Henri Coppet therefore wanted to draw attention to this problem, regretting a lack of transparency on the part of automobile brands.
It must actually be said that this situation where manufacturers do not provide the figures to the authorities is abnormal since there are no figures when you click on the link of the brand concerned in Guadeloupe, there is marked list not provided by the constructor. This means that we do not know if there are affected vehicles or how many there are.
The cabinet requests that publication of a list of brands and models concerneds by the equipment of a defective Takata airbag is carried out by public authorities“in view of the lack of transparency and the chaotic recalls carried out by manufacturers”. And also that manufacturers are required to produce a regular count made public, which indicates the number of vehicles concerned, repaired, still in circulation, but also the models precisely.
The lives of motorists depend on it. As a reminder, overseas, 14 people lost their lives due to these faulty airbags.
