Vehicles in South Australia which have not had their Takata airbags replaced will be refused registration.
The Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure has announced that, as of November 1, vehicles which have not had their potentially lethal Takata airbag inflators replaced will be barred from the state’s roads.
About 680 vehicles still had their risky ‘Alpha’ inflators as of July 31, 2018, the department says.
But after November 1, when their owners attempt to re-register, they will be refused by the registrar.
The 86,820 other vehicles containing Takata ‘Beta’ airbags will not be affected by the registration refusal campaign.
The South Australian Registrar of Motor Vehicles will notify owners if their vehicle contains a Takata airbag and give them a 30-day minimum period to provide evidence to Service SA that the defective airbags are replaced.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will be supplying the registrar with all vehicle VIN numbers in order to identify affected ‘Alpha’ airbags requiring refusal and replacement.
A department spokesperson told NewsCorp, “They put you, your family and other road users at risk of serious injury or death if the airbag is triggered in a collision”.
The department’s post on Facebook has revealed a number of people who have attempted to proactively have their Takata airbag replaced but have been left waiting.
Mike Martini says he “contacted them (local dealer) five times and all they say is ‘yeah we’ll get back to you’.”
“December is most likely,” he says.
Michele Spencer says, “We have contacted them and they say they will contact us”, while Shane Brady is also “Looking at least December or early next year”.
“Not paying for a rental for this long when I have a car that is defective not by my fault,” Brady says.
“If they don’t want to allow us to re-register our cars…
then someone else should be paying for rentals etc until our cars are fixed.
“When you work in places that public transport doesn’t go and at hours it doesn’t run it makes it very hard to get around,” Brady explains.
Michael John O’Donoghue says he has used the IsMyAirbagSafe website established by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, but didn’t get the result he was hoping for.
“I went to the website and entered my details,” O’Donoghue explains.
“It informed me that my Suzuki Swift is perfectly safe.”
“Only difficulty is that I’ve never owned a Suzuki Swift and am now driving a Holden Commodore.”
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