Minister insists father’s airbag concerns investigated rigorously and recall action taken since fatal accident

The recall of vehicles fitted with deadly Takata airbags is proving a nightmare for Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades, and not least because the grieving father of a young man killed in one airbag-linked accident is an old classmate of the minister.

Vafeades has assured the Cyprus Mail he has been engaged continuously in the matter since it came to his attention, but the father of Kyriakos Oxinos insists nothing substantive has been done in the two years since he lost his son.

Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades said on Wednesday that efforts have been ongoing to solve the issue since 2023.

But Yiannos Oxinos, whose 24-year-old son was killed when a faulty Takata airbag exploded during a road accident in January 2023, told the Cyprus Mail on Wednesday saying he had brought the dangers to the minister’s attention two months after the accident, but the ministry was slow to act.

Oxinos said he had looked into the matter himself and found press reports abroad regarding mass recalls due to faulty Takata airbags.

“I sent an SMS to Alexis Vafeades on April 24, 2023, two months after the accident, and asked to see him. He answered immediately and I went to see him the next day,” Oxinos told the Cyprus Mail.

“I took a pile of evidence I had gathered, because no one knew about this issue back then.”

Oxinos added that the permanent secretary of the ministry was there as well.

“I showed them the evidence […] They had no idea about this. I gave them the evidence and asked them to look into the matter because we would grieve more victims over this issue,” he said.

“Since April 2023 up until the time the other young woman from Ayia Napa [Styliani Giorgalli] was killed in October 2024, I believe nothing substantive was done,” Oxinos told the Cyprus Mail.

“Alexis Vafeades started looking into the matter when the House put pressure on him.”

Vafeades vigorously refuted this allegation, telling the newspaper that since 2023 continuous efforts had been made in implementing recalls of affected vehicles and that efforts were ongoing.

“Towards the end of April 2023, Yiannos Oxinos, who was a classmate of mine, visited me at my office,” Vafeades said in a statement to the Cyprus Mail.

“Oxinos requested a meeting to inform me of his belief that the tragic death of his son was due to a faulty Takata airbag,” the minister said.

“During the meeting he also discussed how Takata faulty airbags had affected people worldwide and how there were many deaths and injuries because of them.”

The minister said that following up on this with the responsible officers in the ministry, it was noted that the Department of Road Transport (TOM), being the recall monitoring authority, was responsible for following up vehicle recalls in Cyprus.

“Following an agreement with the distributors, TOM had agreed on a system whereby the latter, being legally responsible for carrying out recalls, would inform owners via a system of notices sent by registered mail. In the case that owners didn’t respond to a recall, then the distributors, who had access to the TOM database, would block owners from issuing the yearly road permit,” he explained.

“It was stated that this was beyond the duties of the recall monitoring authority and was effected to assist distributors ensure that car owners would be informed of recalls. The system had been set up quite recently and was expected to help distributors reach car owners,” he said.

The minister added that in the following months the issue of recalls was discussed in various TV and radio programmes and through these news outlets, information was presented to the public as to the system that was set up to inform and force owners to carry out recalls.

“During this time there were various exchanges of correspondence with the ministry of energy, commerce and industry, requesting information on the issue of car recalls and due process,” said Vafeades.

“In August 2023 efforts were made to improve public awareness through online communications,” he added.

“In discussions held with TOM regarding recalls, they were asked to ensure that recall activity by distributors was followed closely, that owners were notified and whoever neglected to respond to recalls would have a block prohibiting the renewal of a road permit.”

In following meetings with TOM, the issue of so-called ‘grey’ vehicles was also discussed to monitor the recalls of these vehicles as well. Grey vehicles are those imported from a country through channels other than the maker’s official distribution channel or a third-party channel officially authorised by the manufacturer.

“This was a particularly complex issue as it turned out eventually that distributors were not in a position to know, nor were they legally responsible to act on any recall activity regarding grey imports. The legal issues regarding the responsibilities of manufacturers, distributors and importers present particular difficulty and may even have to be decided upon in court,” Vafeades explained.

Vafeades told the Cyprus Mail that the issue of recalls was of a continuous concern, a number of internal meetings were held and research was carried out, exchanges were held with other ministries, TOM monitored recalls closely and was engaged in an effort to find ways to monitor grey import recalls “within a system that had no effective way to do so”.

“This has been the case for the last 15 years which resulted in thousands of cars being recalled without the owners being informed. Our efforts are maintained to resolve these issues and we are committed to work towards a final resolution,” Vafeades concluded.

Earlier on Wednesday, it was also made known that TOM and a car importer could face legal action if the attorney-general’s office determines they bear criminal liability for the death of Kyriakos Oxinos on January 24, 2023.

Meanwhile, 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.

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 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.

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