median. what a nightmare. as for who is to blame, she says this. this failure is surely shared by toyota and ntsa today. in our view, they ve demonstrated an uncaring and disregarding attitude for life. the results have been tragic, and today i must say shame on you, toyota, for being so greedy, and shame on you, ntsa, for not doing your job. toyota s u.s. sales chief says he does not think sudden acceleration in some toyota cars is caused by an electronic problem. that prompted this question from a congressman. if there is no possible problem with your electronic throttle control systems, why do you need to find a way to override the electronic throttle if there is no problem? why do you have to find a way to override? you always have to keep your eyes and ears open in the event that there is something. but you can t have it both ways.
understaffed in this area, but it has enormous authority to do this job. finally, with a new administrator who came in in january, they have sent a letter to toyota, 53 pages, asking all the information they should have asked five, six, seven years ago. unfortunately, a lot of people have now died and been injured while toyota has swept this under the rug and while the department of transportation just hasn t been energized and done its job. so joan, akio toyoda, he wasn t going to speak, now he s going to speak and now there s all this talk about lost in translation and how he s going to come across and his image and really he s just sort of a cultural icon, not really someone who makes big decisions within this company. you know, what s your take on this? is it important to hear from him? what do we need to hear from him? will it really make a difference? is this the person to grill? well, i will say that the person that was grilled
too fast at the expense of safety and quality. congress has questions about the massive recall for sticky accelerators and bad floor mats. more than 8 million cars have been recalled. what did toyota know and when? that s what we all want to know. it is not just about the automaker. they also want to know why the government agency in charge of our safety dropped the ball. if day one was any indication, it should get interesting. here s the crux of the whole thing. are toyotas safe to drive? check out the answer. do you believe that the recall on the carpet clangs and the recall on the sticky pedal will solve the problem of sudden unintended being a sill ration? not totally. what do you need to do? we need to continue to be vigilant and continue to investigate all of the complaints that we get from consumers that we have done a relatively poor job of doing in the past. of course, you ll be able to see akio toyoda s testimony live here on cnn.
we know that toyota president, akio toyoda, will apologize and take some lumps on capitol hill today. we also know that the national highway traffic safety administration is getting hammered for its own failures, like why didn t you step in sooner. joan claybrook is a former nhtsa administrator. he s now president emeritus of a watchdog group and is also scheduled to testify today. joan, what s the first thing you re going to say? the first thing i m going to say is that toyota motor company has lost the trust and confidence of the american public by the way that they have handled this matter, by trying to close down investigations of the department of transportation rather than recalling their defective vehicles. also, blaming the problem of sudden unintended acceleration on floor mats rather than really
behind the wheel of their toyota. now he s gone from customer to crusader. live pictures, a progress report on the economy. federal reserve chief ben bernanke about to testify before the house committee on financial services. lawmakers likely to focus on the job crisis and whether the nation s top banker can keep the economic recovery on track. investors will be listening closely to bernanke s insights as well. a live picture of the big board. dow industrials up 44 points. so how s this for improving schools. fire the teachers, every single one of them, no pink slips left behind. does that sound like a good plan to you? my muscles feel like they ve been pounded. my muscles just ache. ..all over my body. .it just doesn t go away. it s so baffling. (announcer) does this sound like the pain you ve been experiencing?