Toyota president Akio Toyoda to apologize before Congress over safety crisis
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Toyota president Akio Toyoda, who will testify before Congress on Wednesday, will take responsibility for Toyota’s safety woes and will apologize to any motorist who had to deal with sudden acceleration.
In his prepared remarks, Toyoda will offer condolences to a San Diego family who were killed in late August. It was that accident that helped lead to the current congressional probes.
“I will do everything in my power to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again,” Toyoda said in prepared testimony before the House Government Oversight Committee.
“My name is on every car. You have my personal commitment that Toyota will work vigorously and unceasingly to restore the trust of our customers,” Toyoda said.
Toyoda’s apology will carry special weight because he is the grandson of the company’s founder. The apology would be the most prominent of several offered by company executives during the current crisis.
Yoshimi Inaba, president and COO of Toyota Motor North America and chairman and CEO of Toyota Motor Sales, will also apologize during his Wednesday appearance.
Toyota’s James Lentz is testifying Tuesday before another panel and he, too, apologized.
“We have not lived up to the high standards our customers and the public have come to expect from Toyota,” Lentz said. “Put simply, it has taken us too long to come to grips with a rare but serious set of safety issues, despite all of our good-faith efforts.”
--Michael Muskal
