Family stranded on holiday after car recalled over unsafe airbags

A motorist said she had to pay £1,000 to have her car towed more than 150 miles (240km) home after finding out her airbags were unsafe.

Emma Drinkwater, from Harrogate, was at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on 5 July when she received a message from her insurance company saying her Citroen car had a “stop drive” notice.

Stellantis, the parent company of Citroen, issued the notice for 120,000 of its vehicles in the UK after a woman was killed in a crash in France when her airbag exploded.

Ms Drinkwater, 38, said: “It’s scary to think about what could have happened if I had been in an accident and the airbags had gone off. They’re supposed to save your life, not take your life.”

Ms Drinkwater said she was told a chemical fault meant the airbags – made by the now-defunct Japanese airbag maker Takata – could explode without warning,

It is thought that 35 people have been killed by Takata airbags around the world, and some 100 million vehicles have been recalled in various countries.

The scandal was mainly focused in the US and has belatedly hit Europe over the last two years, with the UK arm of Stellantis now also issuing a stop drive notice.

Ms Drinkwater, who had travelled to Silverstone with her partner and stepson, said she had waited four days to find a company to tow her car and caravan back to North Yorkshire, having to take extra time off work as a result.

“It has been a complete nightmare and I don’t even know if I’ll get any compensation,” she said.

She said while she waited for the airbags to be replaced her usual one-hour journey to visit her mother 33 miles (53km) away in Wakefield had become a six-hour round trip by public transport.

“I care for my mum as she has kidney failure and usually do her food shopping, but had to order shopping online to be sent to her home while I was stranded as I couldn’t get back to help her,” she said.

“I feel very angry at how the whole situation has been handled, as it has been a massive inconvenience.

“They’ve sold people cars that are a risk to life with faulty parts and then we are the ones out of pocket having to pay for an issue that was their fault.”

Ms Drinkwater said she was fortunate the airbags in her vehicle had now been replaced as some some people were facing lengthy waits.

A spokesperson for Stellantis said the company’s focus “remains on completing the replacement of airbags in affected vehicles as swiftly as possible”.

They said: “It is inevitable, with such a large number of vehicles affected, that customers could be inconvenienced in the short term.

“However, we are deploying a variety of options to support mobility, recognising that every driver will have individual requirements, and that priority needs to be given to customers with the most urgent needs.”