Some 2.3 million cars on Australian roads are expected to be compulsory recalled, as the Turnbull Government looks to protect drivers from exploding airbags.
News Corp reports on Wednesday that the Federal Government will recall cars with the defective Takata airbags, which have cause dozens of deaths worldwide including one death in Australia.
Takata, a Japanese safety-parts manufacturer, had the airbags installed in 100 million cars worldwide. At least 7 million of those have already been recalled.
2.3 million Australian cars are driving on the roads fitted with potentially deadly airbags. Starting Wednesday, the Government will implement a forced recall of every car
The defective airbags were made by Japanese company Takata and shoot shards of metal into the faces and throats of the cars occupants when released
Manufacturers including Ford, Holden and Volkswagen will be forced to replace the airbags for free and as soon as possible.
It may be Australia’s largest ever consumer recall, and comes after a voluntary recall late last year that involved 1.7 million cars.
The airbags use ammonium nitrate to inflate, a chemical compound that degrades when it’s exposed to moisture.
In the defective Takata airbags, the ammonium nitrate burns aggressively, exploding its metal canister and shooting out shards of metal.
Since 2013, the defective airbags have been responsible for a series of gruesome injuries across the world.
In 2014 a heavily pregnant Malaysian woman, Law Suk Leh, 43, was killed after her airbag ruptured and sent a shard of metal 2.5cm long into her neck.
Her daughter was delivered alive but died two days later.
Since 2013 the defective airbags have been responsible for a series of gruesome injuries across the world
Across the world the deadly airbags have killed 23 people and injured 230 more
In 2017 a Sydney man, 58, was the first Australian killed by the airbags after he collided with another car in Cabramatta.
Everyone else involved in the crash suffered minor injuries but the driver of the Honda CRV was pronounced dead at the scene after the Takata airbag ruptured and sent a small fragment of metal into his throat.
Across the world, the injuries inflicted have also included the loss of eyesight, severed vocal cords, spinal damage and head injuries, including brain damage.
A voluntary recall of 1.7 million vehicles last year by makers Toyota, Mazda and Honda only managed to replace a small amount of the airbags. And while one in five potentially deadly cars were refitted, the process has been largely ineffective.
The recall also found 90,000 alpha airbags, a higher risk subset of the Takata models that weren’t made to design standards and certain not to deploy in the correct way.
The alpha airbags were installed in certain Honda, Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Mazda and Lexus cars, in models sold between 2001 and 2004.
‘It is critical that owners of cars with alpha airbags installed take steps to have the airbags replaced because of the significant risk of injury or death involved in using cars with these airbags,’ The The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said in a statement last September.
In 2017 a Sydney man, 58, was the first Australian killed by the airbags after he collided with another car in Sydney’s Cabramatta
Despite this, 25,000 alpha versions of the airbag are still in cars on Australian roads.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will release a full list of makes and models with the potentially deadly airbags installed later on Wednesday.
In March last year Takata pleaded guilty to criminal wrongdoing and payed $1billion US dollars in penalties for providing fraudulent testing reports to car-makers on rupture-prone airbags.
In June the company filed for bankruptcy.
Consumer group Choice have warned that some people may have to wait up to six months for a replacement.