Faulty airbags: Forum orders car companies to replace vehicle

PANAJI: The North Goa Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has ordered a manufacturer to replace a consumer's Swift ZDI BS IV with a brand new equivalent car and pay Rs 2 lakh as compensation for selling the vehicle with faulty airbag system that didn't inflate during a collision.

In a case of proven negligence, the district consumer forum termed the conduct of the opposite parties in refusing to accept the manufacturing defect of the airbags of the car 'unacceptable'.

The complaint was filed against Sai Service and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.

"The opposite parties have played with human life by selling a car with defective airbags. Looking at the accident from the photographs, we conclude the complainants are lucky to have miraculously survived the severe collision without the safety of the frontal airbags," states the order that was passed by forum president S Vales and members Varsha Bale and Auroliano de Oliveira.

The car, purchased by Rajeshri Nair in 2012, met with an accident on May 1, 2015, in Davngiri taluka, near Bengaluru, Karnataka. The airbag system of the car malfunctioned and didn't inflate resulting in Nair's husband, Ajoshmon R, in the passenger seat injuring his forehead.

He managed to save his life only because was wearing a seat belt at the time and he had tilted his seat slightly, keeping his head bent towards the gear side.

The forum stated that both the opposite parties are liable for selling the car with a manufacturing defect with the airbags where they didn't make any attempt to successfully resolve the issue and instead 'went in denial mode'.

If they do not replace the car, the opposite parties are directed to refund to the complainant a sum of Rs 5,00,000, as claimed by the complainants.