First in France: an induced indictment was pronounced in a file linked to Takata airbags, the faults of which are at the heart of an industrial scandal, that of an automotive distributor on the island of Reunion suspected of not having done enough to warn the motorist victim.
The airbag scandal of the ex-Japanese business Takata, responsible for many fatal accidents worldwide due to explosions during harmless shocks, has experienced incessant twists and turns for more than ten years.
In France, at least 18 people would have died. From a new reminder at the end of June, 1.7 million vehicles have been targeted by a prohibition to circulate until the system is replaced.
The investigations are gradually grouped in the hands of Parisian investigating judges, seized with suspicion of aggravated deception and endangering the life of others, while several complaints have been filed.
Until then, no indictment had been made public.
But according to a source close to the file to AFP, in Saint-Pierre de la Réunion, on March 27, an investigating judge indicted the distributor Leal Réunion, who disputes his responsibility, for manifestly deliberate violation of a security or prudence obligation having involuntarily caused a total incapacity for work greater than three months.
In detail, Leal Réunion is criticized for not “recalling or withdrawing a BMW 318i while the airbag installed in it presented a defect that could cause injuries or even death”.
This questioning is linked to a traffic accident on May 6, 2020, during which a motorist, who filed a complaint, was the victim of serious injuries, especially in the face, caused by the explosion of airbag gas and the projection of objects.
During its interrogation on March 27, which AFP was aware of, a leader of Leal Réunion, a “official circuit” for the sale of BMW vehicles on the island, explained that it has gradually tried, following an alert of the manufacturer at the end of 2019 on the danger of airbags, to warn the holders of cars of this brand.
But at the time, said Leal, the dangerousness was “not clearly established” and “people do not necessarily agree to block their vehicle”. “We decided to wait,” added the leader, also stressing in discharge that the confinement linked to the Epidemia of Covid-19 had frozen everything in the spring of 2020.
– “inertia” –
The judge questions: “The motorist declares that he has never received a mail or telephone call from Leal”.
“It’s true,” replies the leader. “The truth is that I did not (his) coordinated”.
Leal explained that he had recovered in 2013 the BMW distribution circuit of a competitor who would not have transmitted his customer file to him, complicating his “huge task” consisting in joining thousands of motorists.
However, underlines Leal, the vehicle involved in the accident was bought in 2001 and changed hands several times.
Judicial expertise tempers this defense, believing that Leal has really started to warn of BMW holders that “from July 2020, after the accident”. This “inertia” would have created a “loss of luck for the applicant”, according to the expert.
“It is easy to redo the world, we have done all our best,” sweeps the leader, claiming that he was “not remained crossed”.
According to the source close to the file, the Saint-Denis Court of Appeal was seized on Tuesday of a request for investment from Leal Réunion under the more favorable status of assisted witness.
In addition to various procedural arguments, Me Guillaume Martine, one of the company’s lawyers, “intends to demonstrate that Leal Réunion has implemented all possible diligence to prevent accidents from arising, taking into account the weak knowledge, at the time, of the dangerousness of defective airbags”.
“Various obstacles that existed, including on the part of public authorities which were then significantly less mobilized than they are today,” added the Council, while Leal Réunion claims to have requested in vain from the State access to data from the vehicle registration system (SIV).
Posted on July 25 at 11:05 am, AFP