VicRoads criticised over deadly airbags scandal

Car maker Honda has slammed the Victorian Government for not doing enough to get deadly airbags off the road.

Car maker Honda has slammed the Victorian Government for not doing enough to get deadly airbags off the road.

Honda director Stephen Collins has criticised VicRoads’ refusal to take steps to cancel the registration of cars whose owners refuse to replace airbags that could kill or maim occupants in an accident.

It is the only state that has baulked at threatening owners with cancellation if they refuse to respond to the compulsory recall of the most dangerous Alpha airbags. South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory all adopted the tough measure last year, while NSW followed suit last month.

“It’s extremely disappointing … Victoria has a lot of vehicles outstanding. I think it’s a relatively simple measure that is not that difficult to implement. There’s way too much talking going on and not enough action,” Mr Collins said.

Honda has criticised the Victorian Government over the faulty airbags recall.

He said the threat of cancelled registration would help change the minds of owners who were steadfastly refusing to have the recall done.

“We just have to keep trying new things to get them in. That has to help,” he said.

Roger Chao, the director of road user and vehicle access for VicRoads, defended the organisation’s decision not to fall in line with the rest of the country’s road authorities.

“Driver safety is paramount, and we take issues of vehicle safety very seriously,” he said.

“We need to ensure vehicles are safe on our roads, and we have been working with manufacturers, with the intention of implementing registration sanctions, targeting the highest risk vehicles fitted with Takata Alpha airbags,” he said.

One of the car companies hardest hit by the Takata scandal, Honda has recalled 436,965 vehicles containing 668,554 faulty airbag inflators. It has successfully replaced almost 95 per cent of the airbags but Mr Collins said the job was becoming tougher as it neared the end of the recall.

The brand still needs to convince more than 4000 owners of the need to replace the more deadly Alpha airbags, which have a 50-50 chance of spraying potentially deadly shrapnel in the event of an accident.

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Honda has recalled 436,965 vehicles containing 668,554 faulty airbag inflators.

“It makes me feel terrible. Clearly we’ve been promoting the level of risk, which is very high and I think we’ve gone to extraordinary efforts and we continue to go to extraordinary efforts but at the end of the day you can’t drag someone who doesn’t want to come in to come in,” he said.

He said the recall had cost the industry “an enormous amount of money” to track down owners.

That included “doorknocking” every affected customer up to four times. Only a third of those responded positively to the contact.

“We had a whole variety of other responses. A third booked the car in, although we’re having a high no-show rate,” he said.

Excuses included “too busy”, “no one sits in the passenger side” or “the dealer’s going to try and sell me something”.

“There’s a whole variety of reasons. It’s very frustrating but at the end of the day we persevere,” he said.

There has been one fatality and one reported serious injury from airbags in Honda vehicles in Australia. Worldwide, 24 deaths and more than 300 injuries have been attributed to the airbags.

Honda has issued more than 2.3 million forms of communication regarding the recall including text messages and letters.

VicRoads has been contacted for comment.

Tony Weber, chief executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, joined Honda in urging the Victorian government to change its stance.

“The actions by several state governments to limit the re-registration of vehicles fitted with unrectified Alpha airbags is a strongly positive move and will help manufacturers to achieve contact with the relevant owners.

“We urge all state governments to join in this initiative to ensure every affected Takata Alpha airbag is identified and rectified as quickly as possible.”