Takata Corp, the Japanese supplier at the center of an air-bag recall crisis affecting millions of vehicles globally, has announced it will form an independent review panel to investigate the company’s handling of a safety defect linked to five deaths world-wide, reported The WSJ.
The panel, which will be chaired by former U.S. Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner, will be tasked with producing a report on Takata’s manufacturing procedures and the safety of its air-bag inflaters and inflater propellants. The report will be made public upon its completion, according to a statement released Tuesday and signed by Takata CEO and Chairman Shigeshisa Takada.
In some older-model cars, the air-bag inflaters are at risk of exploding with too much force and spraying the driver and passenger with metal shrapnel, Takata has said.
Since 2008, Takata and its auto maker clients have recalled than 10 million vehicles in the U.S. and millions more in Japan, Europe and other countries globally to fix the faulty air bags. The air-bag defect is linked to four deaths in the U.S.
However, a new problem emerged this summer, which Takata suspects is caused by long-term exposure to high humidity and temperature.
At the end of October, U.S. safety regulators urged Takata and 10 auto makers to promptly recall vehicles but only in a few hot, humid states and U.S. territories, where it had received several reports of air-bag ruptures.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has since demanded Takata expand recalls of certain driver-side air bags nationwide, after receiving a report of an air-bag explosion in North Carolina, a state not previously included in the recalls.
Takata has resisted the demand, arguing it has limited replacement parts to fix the air bags and a national recall would divert resources from the hot, humid regions where owners are most at risk for air-bag explosions.
In Tuesday’s statement, Mr. Takada didn’t say whether the company would comply, but noted it is “cooperating closely with our customers and NHTSA to address the potential for inflater rupturing.”
The demand requires Takata to begin sending notices of the most recent recall to customers by Tuesday or face fines of up to $7,000 a day.
NHTSA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Takata is one of the world’s largest suppliers of air bags, and despite the recalls, many car makers continue to sell cars equipped with their air bags.
Takata also said Tuesday it has hired two other former Transportation Department chiefs— Rodney Slater and Norman Mineta—to serve as special counsels to the company as it tries to rebuild its public reputation and ensure it response faster to safety defects.
The company said it is cooperating with a special order by U.S. regulators to turn over documents related to the air-bag defect, noting that it has collected more than “20 terabytes of data” and 360,000 pages of documents in response. NHTSA said Tuesday it had received Takata’s response to the special order but decline to release them publicly, pending an agency review.
On Wednesday, Takata Global Quality Chief Hiroshi Shimizu is expected to testify before a U.S. House panel about the company’s response to the air-bag defect. He will be joined by officials from Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and BMW AG—all of which have models affected by the air bag recalls.
