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US Congress requests Toyota workers’ alleged letter of concern

By Tim Beissmann |

US Congress continues to apply pressure to Toyota, requesting to see a 2006 memo written by Japanese Toyota workers who were concerned about production quality and vehicle safety.

The Los Angeles Times earlier this week reported that a letter of concern was sent from Toyota workers to management more than three years ago.

It expressed unease among some of the workers that shortcuts were being taken, including scaled-back testing of vehicles for quality and safety, all in an attempt to keep production high. Toyota reportedly gave no reply to the 2006 memo.

House of Oversight and Government Reform committee Chairman, Edolphus Towns, wrote a letter to Toyota North America President, Yoshimi Inaba, asking for a copy of the memo by Wednesday March 10, American time.

“If senior Toyota officials ignored important safety concerns raised by their own employees, it calls into question Toyota’s corporate priorities and its commitment to safety,” Mr Towns wrote.

“As part of this inquiry, the committee is looking into whether Toyota ignored important warnings, such as the reported safety memo, regarding the safety of its vehicles.”

CarAdvice will keep you posted on any further developments as they come to hand.

(with Edmunds Inside Line)


 
  • john

    Well well well, This is getting worse every day for toyota.

    • bert b

      Witch hunt! Witch hunt! Witch hunt! America still trying to blame toyota for ford gm & chrysler’s demise, The stupid thing about this story is no japanese made cars had the faulty sticky accelerator’s they were made by a american manufacturer who also provides parts for everyone in the industry! America go blame someone else OH THAT’S RIGHT FORD HAS A RECALL OF 12+ MILLION CARS i wonder where there secret safety documents are kept!

      • Andrew M

        The recall actually does affects vehicles that dont have parts made by CTS, and also models that were made before CTS became a supplier to Toyota.
        Have you even followed the story let alone read Toyotas suppliers response???

        Oh yeah, and please exlain the demise of Ford, GM and chrysler……..

        • gaz

          Well said BERT B it’s a definite yankee witch hunt!!!

      • safety first

        Hmm yup Ford has recalled millions of vehicles! Over how many years?? Over how many models?? and how many different issues?? Facts are there if you chose to look.

        Secondly, it is not the recall that is the problem here, it is the way in which it has been handled. If this latest “rumour” is proven to be fact, what would your opinion be then? Is it right that the manufacturer hears of the problem in 2006 and does absolutely nothing about it even as late as 2010? Again I will say that I first heard about this problem in 2002 (as a Rumour) and it is rumoured to be bought to the managements attention in 2006 and they still did nothing (apparently), that is not the making of a good corporate ethic. Particularly when you are playing with dangerous things like cars.

      • gman

        Its not a witch hunt, there has been multiple deaths over a problem that has not been fixed. Toyota have recieved complaints about this happening to cars after they were fixed, It was only on wednesday an american had his toyota speed of for no reason after the dealer had checked it to find no fault. Now it has been revield that the staff of toyota have seen this comming it is plain to see for anyone with site or a brain that toyota have put profits ahead of people and safety. The problem is toyota! they dont know what is wrong so they cant fix it. Wait for the first international recall. As for this crap about ford they have not had a 12 million plus car recall, thay may have had that over 30 years not 8.5 million over 3 years. IF TOYOTA WAS SO GREAT THEY WOULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMMING. Hiding behind a fake figure for ford that is just weak.

        • bert b

          “gman” where have you been under a rock FORD IN 2008 RECALLED 12MILLION CARS FOR FAULITY CRUISE CONTROLS GO TO “COMSUMERAFFAIRS.COM” get your facts right first! if ford was so good they should have seen that coming!!!! and “gman” how many died from fords explorer with firestone tyre’s? i will tell you 100′s, makes toyota’s 1 death seem pretty week doesn’t it!

        • bert b

          And “gman” what is a international recall is that similar to a global recall?

  • Andrew M

    I also heard another story that surfaced today where a man in jail was trying to get out blaming his “Vehicular Manslaughter” charge on on his Toyota having accelerated on its own.

    • Andrew M

      If his original statement did read that the vehicle acted on its own, it might end up a very interesting story

    • gaz

      Yeah right, and toyota made him drink that bottle of scotch to?

  • Robin Graves

    This needs some more investigation. How many times do workers drag out the old safety chestnut when trying to argue against production guidelines. I’m not saying that is what happened here but this happens all the time, especially with unionised workforces. It will always be ‘us against them’ with companies and workers, and I’m sure similar letters would have been received by other manufacturers over the years. It just depends on how far this goes and how serious the shortcuts are.

    All Toyota would have to do is send out 50 cars with test drivers and have them hooked up to multi channel data loggers – sooner or later it would show up if it is a software glitch, where the internal logging doesnt match the drivers input.