Senate Commerce Committee’s New Report on Takata
June, 2015
Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
“WASHINGTON, D.C. – Employee emails sounded dire warnings about safety and quality lapses years before Takata Corp. would fully acknowledge the threat posed by its defective airbags.
The emails in question are among some 13,000 documents gathered by the Senate Commerce Committee as part of its ongoing investigation into defective airbags that so far have been linked to at least eight deaths and more than 100 injuries worldwide.
They are cited by minority staff of the commerce panel who have produced a new report in the probe, as the full panel prepares to hear from Takata and federal regulators at a hearing tomorrow morning””
““The more evidence we see, the more it paints a troubling picture of a manufacturer that lacked concern,” said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), the top Democrat on the Commerce Committee.
Among the minority report’s other key findings:
- · An unknown number of replacement parts might be defective as well.
- · Despite being in the midst of what would become the largest auto recall in U.S. history, an April 2011 email from a Takata senior vice president noted that “Global safety audits had stopped for financial reasons for last 2 years.”
- · Federal regulators failed to “promptly investigate” early reports of the defective airbags.
“Had Takata maintained a more robust culture of safety, it is likely that many of these defects could have been discovered much sooner,” the report concluded. “Similarly, had NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) promptly undertaken more aggressive steps to investigate the Takata airbag ruptures, it is possible that this defect could have been addressed years earlier.”” Source:
