After fatal accidents, Citroën and DS Automobiles face questions over faulty airbags

On the morning of May 16, 2023, Tristan Guérin was driving slowly through traffic in Le Gosier, in the French Caribbean territory of Guadeloupe. He was in his Citroën C3, recently purchased from a neighbor. It was well-maintained and passed its safety inspection without a hitch a month earlier. The car in front of him braked, but Guérin didn’t notice, and drove into the. The impact was light at his speed, but it triggered the car’s airbags. The cushion exploded in the Guadeloupean’s face. According to the judicial investigation, a piece of metal went through his eye and lodged in his brain. The 26-year-old died instantly.

Several years ago, the Citroën and DS Automobiles brands, which belong to Stellantis, launched a recall campaign in France’s overseas territories, which went relatively unnoticed. For the past month, a higher-profile campaign started in mainland France. “Citroën asks you to stop driving your vehicle immediately” due to airbags that could “cause serious injury or death,” reads the letter sent at the beginning of May to more than 180,000 owners of C3 and 65,000 DS3 cars in mainland France produced between 2009 and 2019.

According to the notice on the Rappel Conso website, the problem is linked to a deterioration of the gas in the airbags made by the Japanese brand Takata, notably due to heat and humidity. This is why, after the overseas territories, only the south of France has been concerned by the vehicle recall – from the “Lyon – Clermont-Ferrand” line, the recall says.

The “murderous airbags” case, as Tristan’s father Bruno Guérin describes it in an online petition, is nothing new, though. In 2017, Takata filed for bankruptcy after a major global scandal, particularly in the United States. Several manufacturers such as Audi, Nissan and BMW also launched recall campaigns for their vehicles in recent years around the world. “Citroën has known for several years that the problem exists. If we had learned the lessons from the first accident, there wouldn’t have been any more,” lamented Charles-Henri Coppet, a lawyer for several victims or relatives of victims, including Guérin’s family.

Investigation for manslaughter

At a conference in June 2023, prosecutors said there had been 11 accidents in Guadeloupe potentially linked to Takata airbags, four of them fatal, since 2018. “A judicial investigation has been opened for personal injury and manslaughter with five victims (five accidents) that could be linked to Citroën airbag explosions,” Caroline Calbo, one of the prosecutors, told Le Monde.

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