Some motorists whose vehicles have been immobilised due to a recall for being fitted with potentially faulty Takata airbags will be offered €100 per week by the government, provided that they have made an appointment to have their vehicles’ airbags replaced by the end of January, the transport ministry said on Thursday.

The ministry said the payment will be made available to guaranteed minimum income recipients, low-income pensioners, single parents, families with multiple children and people who do not have access to another vehicle.

It said that a total of 10,782 vehicles had been immobilised as of last Friday, and that 4,327 appointments have been made for Takata airbags to be replaced by the end of January.

Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades decreed the recall of over 80,000 cars which were fitted with potentially faulty Takata airbags in February, giving motorists until October to have their vehicles’ airbags replaced, lest they be immobilised.

“The eight-month deadline was set due to the seriousness of the risk and was an exception to the general framework of 18 months… That is why the timetable was strict, aiming at immediately protecting people. This decision was based on the recommendations of the manufacturing companies,” the road transport department said last month.

The issue of airbag safety stems from the production of faulty airbags manufactured by Japanese company Takata. The company’s airbags suffer a fault related to exposure to high levels of heat or humidity, with 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.

Meanwhile, a committee was formed in the spring to investigate the history of faulty airbags in Cyprus and their import into the country, with that committee filing a report to attorney-general George Savvides.

The report stated that the four people who served as transport minister between 2013 and 2023 – Efthymios Flourentzou, Marios Demetriades, Vasiliki Anastasiadou, and incumbent Famagusta district governor Yiannis Karousos – “bear heavy responsibility” for the issue of faulty airbags remaining in circulation.

Faulty airbags are known to have caused two deaths in Cyprus, those of Styliani Giorgalli last year, Kyriakos Oxinos in 2023, and most recently of Turkish soldier Ali Osman Bayram last month, while Alexandros Lougos has so far undergone 21 surgeries to restore his face after being involved in an accident in 2017.