New stuff. Thats who we are. So hopefully in addition to being able to highlight the extraordinary work of extraordinary individuals that we are going to go out there and remind ourselves once again about why science and discovery and invention is so important. I hope all of you have a wonderful reception. I hear the food here is pretty good. [applause] [applause] millions of vehicles in the u. S. Were recalled because of defective airbags made by the takata corp. That were linked to at least five deaths. The Senate Commerce Committee Questioned takata officials and representatives of honda and chrysler about the recalls. Youll also hear from acting head of the national highway Traffic Safety of and the first witness of this hearing is a victim of the airbag defect. This is just under three hours. Good morning. May i ask everyone if they would take their seats. [inaudible conversations] good morning everyone. Senator thune and i have been looking forward to this. We want to thank the w
43 of those correlate to the time of those takata manufacturing concerns. And to our regret, all four fatalities correspond to that same time. So were talking about recalls that were done 2008 to 2011 because of different manufacturing issues that takata made us aware of, and is pretty strong data that shows this is where the majority of the problems have been occurring, and those recalls were national i understand. I wasnt saying they were regionally limited. Its just, you have recall after recall after recall, when clearly theres these red flags. And the reason it matters so much to this constituent, who is permanently blind, is this was in 2013. It just seems that its a different manufacturer, but if takata had done a more global look at what was happening, and by global, i mean, in all their air bags, i dont think this would have happened. So i think to you, that is on november 6th, a New York Times article reported that takata secretly conducted tests in 2004 at your auburn hills
Global look at what was happening on a global i mean in all their air bags, i dont think this would have happened. So to you, mr. Shimizu, and that is a november 6th New York Times article stated takata secretly conducted tests in 2004 at your auburn hills location pin response to the rere lease of metal fragments issue with the honda accord. According to the article, the steel inflators allegedly cracked during the tests and takata ordered the testing data deleted and the air bag inflators destroyed. Takata has disputed the report saying the report was based son some misunderstandings. What specifically about the report was inaccurate . Yes, senator. Again, its regarding the incident of honda vehicle in 2004 according to my knowledge it was informed to takata in may of 2005. There is no way we can do any test relating to that unfortunate incident before hand. And also the series of incident happened in 2007, and at that time we actually started investigation about the to identify the