CEO Shigehisa Takada apologized for the deaths and injuries brought by the defective airbags of Takata Corp. The move is so far the first public apology made by the Takata CEO following the pressure to set up a victims' compensation fund and the need to speed up the investigations on what could have caused the airbags to explode in a deadly way.
Takada, a grandson of the founder of the company, attended a news conference event following the company's shareholders meeting. Takada was said to have apologized to the shareholders during the meeting and followed it up with a public apology as he tried to respond to the questions that were thrown at him by the media.
"I apologize for not having been able to communicate directly earlier, and also apologize for people who died or were injured," said Takada. "I feel sorry our products hurt customers, despite the fact that we are a supplier of safety products."
Last month, the company admitted that its airbags had indeed become faulty which could have caused the metal inflators to suddenly explode with an unbelievable force upon their deployment. The cause of the defect is still being investigated following the scandals that were brought by eight deaths and over 100 injuries that have been linked to the faulty airbags. Over 30 million vehicles had so far been recalled to address the airbag issues. More vehicle recalls are expected to roll out in the future.
Japanese automakers such as Nissan Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. had lately announced that they are expanding their vehicle recall programs. Nissan is gearing up to recall more than 190,000 vehicles which were manufactured between April 2007 and December 2008. Toyota announces that it is rolling out a global recall of another 2.86 million affected vehicles.
All in all, there were 11 automakers that were affected by the airbag issue which also include BMW and Honda.
"We are a company that should be providing safety," said Takada. "What I must do now is to handle the problem properly and deliver safety to our customers. That is my priority, first and foremost."
Earlier this week, Takata faced strong pressure from U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal who is pushing for the company to set up a victims' compensation fund. At the meeting, Takada responded by saying that the company is finding ways to help the victims which will include compensating them by funding means.
