The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has conducted inspections at 679 second-hand motor dealers, auction houses and wreckers with the aim of ensuring dangerous vehicles are not being sold.
The inspections are part of a national compliance operation for the Compulsory Takata Recall Notice.
Acting Attorney-General at the time, Mick de Brenni said more than 20,000 vehicles were checked with the result that 105 were found to be fitted with the faulty Takata airbags.
“Takata airbags have the potential to explode in an accident, even a minor one, and can send sharp metal fragments through the vehicle at high speed, potentially causing a serious injury or fatality,” Mr de Brenni said.
“Globally, there have been over 350 injuries and 32 deaths reported, with one death and three injuries in Australia, including one serious injury.”
He said it was absolutely essential that motor dealers did the right thing for the safety of consumers and got unsafe vehicles off the road.
The Minister said the OFT conducted 12 investigations into motor dealers it identified as selling vehicles containing the faulty airbags, leading to 12 legally-binding, enforceable undertakings being made with the dealers in question.
Mr de Brenni said that aside from the clear dangers associated with faulty airbags, failure to comply with the enforceable undertaking could also result in prosecution action for the original breaches of the law and non-compliance with the undertaking.
“Car dealers should know it is an offence to sell any vehicle that is under active recall and significant fines may be imposed by the courts,” Mr de Brenni said.
“Despite manufacturers and suppliers recalling these vehicles under the compulsory recall since July 2018, more than 2,265 dangerous vehicles are still on our roads in Queensland, potentially putting people’s lives in danger.”
