ACCC finds third Australian, Helen Lee Valadares, was killed by Takata airbag

The ACCC has found a third Australian was killed by a Takata airbag, raising questions about why there was not a coronial inquest.

A NSW mother whose husband was killed by a Takata airbag — leading to a wave of car recalls — has questioned why there was no coronial inquest into a young woman’s similar death eight years earlier.

Before Wednesday, Queanbeyan mechanic Goce Velovski was thought to be the only person in Australia to have died due to a misfiring NADI 5-AT Takata airbag.

Mr Velovski was killed in 2019.

However, The Daily Telegraph can reveal that subsequent research by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has found that the death of Northern Territory woman Helen Lee Valadares in 2011 involved the “misdeployment of a NADI 5-AT airbag” in a Toyota Starlet.

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Helen Lee Valadares of Darwin.

After Mr Velovski’s death, eight manufacturers including Toyota voluntarily recalled an estimated 81,500 mainly older cars fitted with non-azide driver inflator (NADI) airbags that use 5-aminotetrazole (5-AT) propellant; 96 per cent have now been fixed.

By contrast, about three million vehicles containing Takata airbags with phase-stabilised ammonium nitrate (PSAN) propellant have been subject to a government-initiated compulsory recall; 99.9 per cent of these have been fixed.

One person has died because of a dodgy PSAN airbag: Sydney man Huy Neng Ngo in 2017.

Two people have died due to failed NADI 5-AT airbag failures.

The federal Department of Transport said voluntary recalls were more “efficient and timely”.

Ms Valadares was killed when her car slammed into the back of a stationary Holden Commodore at an intersection on Darwin’s outskirts.

Her Starlet’s brakes were working and Ms Valadares had a seatbelt on. She was not affected by alcohol or drugs and hadn’t been speeding. The road was dry and sealed.

Yet the 27-year-old did not slow down.

Helen Lee Valaderes.

Helen Lee Valaderes.

Witnesses reported seeing the detached airbag on the car floor, indicating it had completely separated from the steering column.

In examining Ms Valadares’s death, then deputy coroner Sally Ozolins ruled out vehicle fault.

In written reasons obtained by The Daily Telegraph, Ms Ozolins said that “having excluded environmental hazards and vehicle faults, sadly, it must be concluded that driver error was the sole or significant contributor to the collision which led to the death of this much loved young woman.”

Goce Velovski of Queanbeyan. Picture: Supplied

Ms Ozolins said she did not consider holding an inquest would elicit any further information.

When contacted by The Telegraph this week, Ms Ozolins, who is now a barrister, said: “I’m not there (at the coroner’s office) any more” and declined to make further comment, referring questions to the NT coroner’s office, which did not respond prior to deadline.

The ACCC said it was not made “aware of the deputy coroner’s reasons for deciding not to hold an inquest.”

NT Police said in “hindsight, with regard to Takata airbag problems which were not known at the time, NT Police suspect(s) this crash probably involved a Takata airbag failure.”

The first voluntary recalls of Takata airbags in Australia began in 2009.

Toyota said it wasn’t made aware of the crash until 2019 so it never conducted an investigation.

The ACCC said it “identified the 2011 NT incident” in research done after Mr Velovski’s death.

His BMW was fitted with NADI 5-AT airbags; there was no recall in place at the time of his death.

After being told of Ms Valadares’s 2011 death by The Telegraph, Mr Velovski’s widow Suzy said: “They should have investigated more.”

An inquest into the crash that killed her husband, who was 51, is expected to be held later this year.