Stellantis issues stop-drive notice for 28,000 Citroën cars in Belgium over airbag defect
Stellantis has issued a stop-drive notice for nearly 28,000 Citroën C3 or DS3 cars in Belgium, it confirmed on Thursday. The move follows an accident in France last week, where a driver died from injuries caused by a faulty airbag.
The accident prompted Citroën to send out a Europe-wide order for affected models on Tuesday, urging owners not to use their cars until the airbag is replaced. Around 441,000 vehicles are equipped with the faulty airbag.
Initially, that did not include Belgium. Stellantis Belux - the local branch of the car manufacturer - had issued a recall process for affected models in April, but owners who had not yet received a letter could continue to drive.
That changed on Thursday, when Stellantis Belux confirmed it had sent out stop-drive notices for almost 28,000 Citroën models in Belgium. Owners of Citroën C3 and DS3 models built between 2009 and 2018 equipped with a Takata airbag will receive a notice, asking them to stop using their car and have the airbag replaced as soon as possible. People can also check whether their car is affected via the Citroën Belgium website.
Internal delays
The discrepancy between orders from the European branch was due to internal communication delays, Stellantis Belgium told The Brussels Times. "We had not yet received internal confirmation to proceed with a European stop drive," the company said. "Until Belgium received this confirmation, we continued the recall process already under way."
There have been problems with Takata airbags for years. The Japanese manufacturer went bankrupt in 2017 after incurring tens of billions of dollars in costs from recalls and lawsuits related to defective airbags. As of September 2024, its airbags have been linked to at least 36 deaths and 400 injuries.
© PHOTO SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP
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