The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) in Australia has issued a ‘stop drive warning’ for vehicles fitted with potentially fatal Takata airbags.
In a series of press releases, the FCAI detailed that there are thousands of vehicles on Australian roads fitted with Takata’s deadly Alpha and non-Alpha airbags and is telling people to stop driving their cars immediately.
Among the most popular models with potentially dangerous airbags fitted include the 1998-2000 Honda Accord and CR-V, 1997-1999 Toyota RAV4, 1997-2000 Mitsubishi Lancer, Mirage, and Parejo, as well as all versions of the E46 BMW 3-Series sold between 1997 and 2000.
In the state of New South Wales, there are nearly 70,000 vehicles on the roads that need to have their airbags replaced and of those, 2,146 are critical Alpha and non-Alpha types. In Victoria, there are 68,000 vehicles in need of an airbag recall with 2,716 of them featuring the Alpha and non-Alpha types.
In Queensland there are 1,798 vehicles with these deadly airbag types on the roads while in the Australian Capital Territory there are 195, South Australia has 315, in the Northern Territory there are 85, Western Australia has 608 impacted vehicles on its roads, and in Tasmania there are 63 with the critical Alpha and non-Alpha type.
“These are the worst of the worst,” FCAI chief executive Tony Weber said. “They have been declared critical for a very important reason – they are high-risk and can kill vehicle drivers and occupants. Any vehicle with critical Alpha or critical non-Alpha type airbags should not be driven at all.”
Concerned owners are being urged to visit the ismyairbagsafe portal to see if their vehicle has a Takata airbag that needs to be replaced.
