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Takata airbag recall: NSW joins other states in registration ban

Victoria is now the only state in Australia that has not amended its legislation to ban the registration renewal on cars equipped with dodgy Takata airbags.


NSW has joined other states in banning the registration renewal of cars equipped with faulty Takata airbags which can spray shrapnel with deadly force when deployed in a crash.

The NSW Government today amended regulations to enable authorities to cancel registrations and/or ban the registration renewal of vehicles subject to a compulsory recall.

A statement issued by NSW roads minister Melinda Pavey late today said: “Roads and Maritime Services may refuse to register a vehicle, or may suspend or cancel a vehicle’s registration, if the vehicle, or any part of the vehicle, is subject to a compulsory recall notice under the Australian Consumer Law.”

The new regulation will give NSW road safety authorities greater powers to enforce any future compulsory recalls for motor vehicles.

Victoria is now the only state in Australia to not introduce a registration renewal ban on cars with the Alpha type Takata airbag.

The most recent figures show there are approximately 1600 cars on NSW roads and 1200 on Victoria roads with the Alpha type Takata airbag, and approximately 1 million of the Beta type Takata airbag.

The Alpha type of Takata airbag is deemed so potentially deadly that authorities have advised owners not to drive cars equipped with them. Independent testing has shown they have a 50:50 chance of spraying shrapnel when deployed in a crash. The Beta type of Takata airbag has a 1 per cent chance of deploying with deadly force but there are millions more of them globally and in Australia.

To date, 24 people have died and more than 260 people have been seriously injured as a result of faulty Takata airbags.

In Australia, the one fatality in Sydney in July 2017 (in a Honda CR-V) and one serious injury in Darwin in April 2017 (in a Toyota RAV4) involved cars equipped with the Beta type Takata airbag.

This has prompted calls from several leading car makers to expand the registration ban to the 1 million remaining recalled cars with the Beta type Takata airbag.

In the meantime, CarAdvice has contacted VicRoads for comment now that Victoria is the only state without a registration renewal ban.

A statement issued three weeks ago by VicRoads’ Director, Road User and Vehicle Access, Roger Chao, said: “Driver safety is paramount, and we take issues of vehicle safety very seriously. We continue to work closely with the ACCC and other States and Territories to assist manufacturers in contacting owners of affected vehicles, and are considering all options to ensure vehicles are safe on our roads.”

This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling

Joshua Dowling

Joshua Dowling has been a motoring journalist for more than 20 years, spending most of that time working for The Sydney Morning Herald (as motoring editor and one of the early members of the Drive team) and News Corp Australia. He joined CarAdvice / Drive in 2018, and has been a World Car of the Year judge for more than 10 years.

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