A total of 426 more vehicles are now subject to a recall due to the fact that they may have been fitted with faulty airbags, with all 426 having had their MOT certificates immediately revoked, the road transport department announced on Thursday.

The department said it had been informed by distributing company Char. Pilakoutas Ltd that the vehicles are BMW model cars which were manufactured between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2008.

It also said the recall was put out with “instructions from the manufacturer to their owners to immediately immobilise them”.

“Therefore, the road transport department has proceeded to revoke the MOT certificates of the vehicles in question,” it said.

It urged people affected by the recall to contact Char. Pilakoutas Ltd, the approved BMW distributor in Cyprus, for further instructions.

The issue of airbags stems from the production of faulty airbags by Japanese company Takata. The company’s airbags suffer a fault related to exposure to high levels of heat or humidity, which means they have a tendency to explode when released under such circumstances.

This explosion shoots the airbag’s metal inflator outwards and in the direction of the person it was designed to protect, potentially causing further injuries or, in some cases, death.

Faulty airbags have caused two deaths in Cyprus, those of Styliani Giorgalli last year and Kyriakos Oxinos in 2023, while Alexandros Lougos has so far undergone 21 surgeries to restore his face after being involved in an accident in 2017.

Motorists can check whether their vehicles have been subject to recalls on the transport ministry’s website.

Those who have had their vehicles’ airbags changed are urged to contact the road transport department on [email protected] so that their vehicles can be removed from the list.

Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades had at the start of February decreed the recall of over 80,000 cars which are fitted with potentially fatal Takata airbags, all of which are to be replaced over a period of eight months. Exactly 276 vehicles were immobilised immediately and as such have had their road tax and MOT certificates rescinded.

However, since then, issues have arisen regarding ‘grey vehicles’ – those which are imported second-hand privately, with the government having been in the dark over how many such vehicles may have been fitted with faulty airbags.

Vafeades said last week that there was no chain of information regarding grey vehicles and that the government had not known how many grey vehicles existed and were potentially impacted by the issue until this year.

“On January 30, we learned how many grey cars are affected. Because until that day the distributors said ‘we don’t know, we won’t tell you, we are not obliged to tell you’. When they did respond, they did so for other reasons and only for Takata,” he said.