Several local dealers recall vehicles for airbag system upgrade

The Toyota Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. has made a special announcement for the vehicle owners regarding the free replacement on the front passenger and driver’s side airbag inflator unit.

Accordingly, Toyota Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. mentions that it will provide the service of replacing the airbag inflator units free of charge for the vehicles of “Toyota Corolla” and “Yaris” models.

The announcement further includes that a special programme has already been implemented in this regard.

Thus, the chassis ranges of affected vehicles and relevant details are as below.

The vehicle owners are informed to contact the company, in accordance with their vehicle chassis number and to verify the vehicle’s eligibility to service. Then, the owners can hand over their vehicles for relevant Toyota Lanka Service Centers and receive the service.

For further inquiries you can contact 0112 939 000 or 0777 939 158.

Meanwhile, the United Motors Lanka PLC has issued a special notice for the ‘MITSUBISHI’ vehicle owners regarding the faulty airbag replacement free of charge.

The recalled vehicle models include Montero, Lancer and L 200.

In addition, the Stafford Motor Company has also informed the HONDA vehicle owners that the company has recalled for an airbag system update for several models of vehicles.

The Department of Motor Traffic yesterday (Feb. 12) revealed that over 700,000 vehicles identified to be in the category and brand of vehicles with faulty airbags, which have been recalled by the manufacturers, are currently in operation in Sri Lanka.

The Commissioner General of Motor Traffic, Nishantha Anuruddha Weerasinghe stated that relevant measures are underway to recall those vehicles from the owners, following discussions with local vehicle dealers.

The Department of Motor Traffic mentions that several models of cars and SUVs have been identified to be in operation within the island, in which the said fault of the airbag can be fatal to the driver.

Furthermore, the relevant department confirmed that although many other countries have recalled certain models of vehicles with such faulty airbags and the issues have been fixed so far, those vehicles are still running on the roads in Sri Lanka with no inspection.

Recently, a scientist from the Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC) was killed in a road accident at Kumbuka in Gonapola, Horana on February 03, whereas it was later uncovered that the death was caused by a fault in the airbag of the vehicle.

Following this tragedy, local vehicle dealers who have sold vehicles of similar models to that of the deceased scientist have recalled those vehicle models for an Air Bag system upgrade.

Accordingly, the Commissioner General of Motor Traffic noted that 47 categories of vehicle models have been identified with such faulty airbag, and that measures have been taken to recall those vehicles from the owners, after obtaining information from the local vehicle dealers regarding the vehicle owners.