"Car manufacturers have warned there are hundreds of vehicle owners in New South Wales who should stop driving their vehicles immediately because of high-risk faulty Takata airbags.

"Vehicle owners and their passengers are being unnecessarily exposed to the risk of death or serious injury because the vehicles have not had faulty airbags replaced.

"Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive, Tony Weber, said there were 2,146 airbags in New South Wales of the critical Alpha and critical non-Alpha type.

"'These are the worst of the worst,' Mr Weber said. 'They have been declared critical for a very important reason - they are high-risk and can kill vehicle drivers and occupants. Any vehicle with critical Alpha or critical non-Alpha type airbags should not be driven at all.'

"Mr Weber said it was alarming so many owners of vehicles representing such a significant public safety risk had not arranged to have the faulty airbags replaced. They also risked cancellation of their vehicle registrations.

Related: Safer cars matter

"'This is not a story about one or two lost vehicles in Australia,' he said. 'We are talking about hundreds of vehicles - some of them with more than one faulty airbag. There would be a traffic jam if they all descended on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.'

"Mr Weber said car manufacturers will arrange to promptly collect any of these vehicles and replace the faulty airbags free of charge.

"The high-risk airbags are among nearly 70,000 faulty airbags in vehicles in New South Wales that still need to be replaced as part of an ACCC-mandated compulsory recall."

This same urgent news release was sent out for WA, NT, TAS, VIC, QLD, ACT and SA, showing the deep concern held for these defective and possibly deadly airbags.

Check your car is not affected!

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