Takata hearing reveals 90,000 unsafe cars still on Cyprus roads

Proceedings before the investigative committee, examining the circulation and recall of vehicles with faulty parts, resumed on Wednesday in a tense and emotionally charged setting with testimonies from bereaved families.

At the heart of the hearings are the fatal accidents that claimed the lives of 24-year-old Kyriakos Oxinos in 2023 and 19-year-old Styliani Giorgalli in early 2024, two young people who died due to the Takata airbags that were meant to protect them.

Their parents gave testimonies before the committee, revealing harrowing details about the crashes and the bureaucratic gaps that followed. First to speak was Yiannos Oxinos, Kyriakos’ father, who sharply rejected claims made in a previous hearing by the Pilakoutas Group, the official importer of BMWs in Cyprus.

“There was no attempt to contact us. I ordered the car myself in 1999 under my mother’s name. They called the wrong number, it was a concert ticket company. And their letters? Not even registered post,” he said, visibly distressed. When asked if he outright denied the company’s account, he replied “yes”, but added he was willing to apologise if proven wrong.

Oxinos also referred to a meeting with the Minister of Transport Alexis Vafeades on April 25, 2023, just three months after his son’s death. Also present was Yiannis Nicolaides, then director general of the ministry.

“I didn’t expect the minister to know every detail,” Oxinos admitted, “but the director general’s ignorance stunned me.”

Nicolaides had spent over a decade at the road transport department and even contributed to the 2017 recall circular. Two months after that meeting, Nicolaides was transferred to the deputy ministry of welfare.

“I only learned the word ‘Takata’ in 2023. When the accident happened, I started digging. In Cyprus, no one cared. If we had known, Kyriakos would be alive,” Kyriakos’ mother, Maria Loui, added.

She claimed that even today, thousands of drivers receive only unregistered mail as notification.

“Ninety thousand ticking time bombs are still on our roads,” she said, referring to the road transport department’s 2025 list of vehicles subject to recall.

“Kyriakos’ car was marked ‘do not drive’. Thousands had no idea until that list came out, not even after Styliani’s death,” she added.

“If there are people responsible,” Loui said tearfully, “I beg you, let them be held accountable.”
Styliani’s father, Yiannos Giorgallis, also gave moving testimony.

“I learned the word Takata from Kyriakos’ mother. Until then, I had never heard of it.” He said Styliani’s Toyota Yaris, bought second-hand in Cyprus in 2006, did not appear in the Japanese recall database.

“We had no clue, even in January 2025, that her car was under recall.”

After her death, Giorgallis removed the airbags himself.

“Three of our cars had Takata airbags. Later, Toyota informed us about recalls on my wife’s and son’s cars, one needed the passenger airbag and seat rails replaced. When I went there with two airbags, they told me Styliani’s car had a faulty passenger airbag. I told them: ‘That’s the one that killed my daughter in Avgorou’.

“I don’t need an expert to tell me. I saw it. They thought she’d been shot. The police almost investigated a murder.”

The hearing also featured input from road accident investigators. Yiannos Santafianos, a police expert, submitted a written report on Kyriakos’ fatal crash on January 24, 2023. He noted the collision damage alone was not severe enough to cause death, but the airbag had failed to function properly.

“Mechanical parts collapsed and metal fragments were launched towards his face,” he wrote.

“The whole airbag unit detached. So did the steering wheel and even the fabric covering.”

The inquiry is expected to hear more evidence in the coming days, including testimony from the traffic department, as the committee builds a picture of the ongoing threat posed by Takata airbags awaiting replacement and still circulating on Cypriot roads in the tens of thousands.