Toyoda apologizes to US Congress
WASHINGTON. February 25. KAZINFORM Toyota Chief Executive Akio Toyoda came to Washington to publicly apologize to Congress Wednesday for safety lapses that led to widespread recalls for accelerator and braking failures and for a corporate culture that may have made things worse. A House committee chairman said blame must be shared by both Toyota and US safety regulators, Kazinform refers to Arab News.
Rep. Edolphus Towns, a Democrat and chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) failed to follow through aggressively on thousands of complaints dating back a decade about sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles.
NHTSA , which is part of the Transportation Department, "failed the taxpayers and Toyota failed their customers," Towns declared ahead of eagerly awaited testimony by the company's chief executive.
"Thousands of complaints, multiple investigations, and serial recalls are bad enough. But we now have 39 deaths attributed to sudden acceleration in Toyotas," Towns said.
"To give that horrifying number perspective, there were 27 deaths attributed to the famous (Ford) Pinto exploding gas tank of the 1970s." Toyoda, the 53-year-old scion of the Toyoto empire, readied testimony apologizing for the problem and acknowledging that the world's largest automaker grew too fast to keep up with safety controls.
His family name differs from the company name because the number of brushstrokes in "Toyota" - eight - was considered luckier than "Toyoda" with 10 strokes.
Toyoda was to be the second witness to appear before the panel and was not in the room during opening statements by members and LaHood's testimony.
An apology may not be enough for the feisty panel of lawmakers on the committee in a year in which every one faces re-election. Nor will any culture gap; Japanese chief executives typically serve symbolic roles akin to figureheads without much power to control operations, Kazinform cites Arab News. See www.arabnews.com for full version.