The road transport department (TOM) and a car importer could face legal action if the attorney-general’s office determines they bear criminal liability for the death of 24-year-old Kyriakos Oxinos, who was killed when a faulty airbag exploded during a road accident in 2023.

Meanwhile, Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades briefed the cabinet on Wednesday that an administrative inquiry had been completed on what has been done since 2010 regarding recalls and that investigations would continue.

Vafeades agreed to present a new proposal next week on how investigations should proceed into the matter to get to the truth.

Speaking after the cabinet meeting, Vafeades said the administrative inquiry looked into everything that took place since 2010 and during the years 2017 and 2018 with the TOM circular and European regulation 2018/858.

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The inquiry, he said, had reached conclusions and that investigations would continue to determine if there was anything that the Law Office needed to know about.

Oxinos’ parents have maintained from the beginning that they had not been informed of a recall of the car, which had been bought brand new from a dealer in Cyprus.

A recall notification for the defective Takata airbags was sent to the parents on Monday – two years after their son’s death.

According to Politis, the criminal investigation into Kyriakos’ death in the January 24, 2023 accident, have been completed and the dossier has been submitted to the Republic’s Law Office for evaluation.

However, sources said that the case was recently returned to the police for additional information needed to confirm beyond doubt that Oxinos’ fatal injuries were caused by the Takata airbag. The airbag deployed during the crash in Engomi, ejecting metal shrapnel that killed him.

A final decision from the Law Office is expected soon.

Investigations have focused on the car importer after Oxinos’ family discovered that the vehicle, which was European-approved and purchased as new, had been equipped with the defective Takata airbags.

Their own inquiries revealed that the specific model had been recalled by the manufacturer in 2020, yet they were never notified by either the dealer or TOM.

A second fatality linked to faulty Takata airbags is also under investigation. Nineteen-year-old Styliani Giorgalli from Avgorou was killed on October 21, 2024, in a road accident between Avgorou and Frenaros.

An autopsy determined that she died from haemorrhagic shock caused by a ruptured ascending aorta and lung, injuries allegedly inflicted by metal shrapnel from a defective airbag.

Official findings on her case are expected soon.

TOM apologised on Tuesday after sending text messages to the families of people who had died in traffic accidents, informing them that their cars are subject to recalls, causing an island-wide uproar.

The first recorded injury from a Takata airbag was in 2018, when a young driver sustained serious facial injuries.

Over 80,000 cars with faulty airbags are still on the roads, while recalls abroad began in 2012.

As of 2010, there has been no state supervision regarding recalls and over the past 14 years thousands of owners of cars imported second hand have not been notified of recalls.

Politis pointed out that TOM bore much of the responsibility, as it registered the cars aware of the fact that recalls would not get through.