>> we neat need to figure out how to prevent these issues from happening. cars are safer than every, advances in vehicle technology and safety and robust safety

initiatives have reduced the number of deaths on the road. still tragically more than 30,000 people die every year due to motor vehicle accidents. airbags are the most important safety innovation and that is why it is alarming ten of millions of cars have potentially defective airbags. we will be asking witnesses on updates on the tekata inflaters. the large number of vehicles recall covered 11 manufacturers with a lack of identified root cause make the problem difficult. this is not excuseing the auto manufacturing, suppliers and the national highway traffic safety administration, nhtsa, from their shared obligation to insure vehicles are safe.

nhtsa has taken a role in overseeing this. tekata is ramping up the replacement parts and seeking to contact the dealers and dealer with deeperships on swift repairs. question exist about if the replacements are safe. tekata is phasing out certain test and determining the root cause of the inflater defects. this testing will help to assess the scope of the recalls and safety of the replacement parts. the alarming recalls understore the importance of clear, accurate information for consumers. nhtsa dedicated recall website is an important step but recall fatigue and confusion are growing. the large number of vehicles is resulting in delays of notice and the number of times the same vehicle may be subject to recall maybe more perplexing.

64 million automobiles were recalled last year and i appreciate nhtsa and the auto industry are looking for ways to improve the process. identifying the problem earlier is another key issue of nhtsa. i look forward to hearing more about the inspector's report raising inability in this area. the audit identifies instances in which the agency repeatedly dropped the ball handing the ignition motor defect. unable to complete accurate data analysis so the agency can identify potential safety problems. these findings are especially disconcerting giving the scale of the tekata defects. i am pleased to know administrator rosekind conquered with all 17 of the suggestions and has been implementing them. there have been too many recalls and that is why i am working

with senator nelson for the whistle blower act so they can be revealed before taking many lives. despite the vacancy, under rosekind's leadership, nhtsa has been looking for ways to improve. there have been assessments of nhtsa and a plan for a path forward but now is the time for accountability. the agencies, automakers suppliers, dealers, and congress must work together to reduce deaths and injuries on the nation's roadways. this committee will continue to conduct recalls of vehicle safety efforts. i appreciate tekata's operation with request to date and received another large amount of document documents from the company a fa days ago. it is also important for consumers to check to see if their vehicle is subject to this

or any recall. nhtsa has a vehicle identification number or vin look up tool at safercar.gov. please schedule an appointment to get your vehicle fixed if you determine it is recalled. i am pleased to welcome administrator rosekind and i want to welcome general calvin scovel back. i want to thank the witnesses for being here. we will start with the first panel with mr. rosekind followed by mr. scovel. excuse me, i apologize. the senator from florida, ranking member please make your opening statement. >> thank you.

the danger behind the wheel and the tekata airbag process and how to fix the recall done by minority staff. if i may have that entered into the record. >> without objection. >> thank you for your co cooperation on this. you will recall, last year, we started the hearings on these airbags and their defects. we had five deaths and dozens of injuries that were tied to the defective airbags. and we had testimony from the air force lieutenant. lieutenant stephanie erdman. she suffered severe facial

injuries and almost lost one of her eyes when her airbag exploded after a relatively minor accident in the florida panhandle near the eggland air force base. since then the recalls have ramped up appropriately. in april, a 22-year-old was involved in an accident in louisiana. the wreck was serious, but as you can see look at this airbag

and i want -- do we have the pictures of the lady? that is the one from florida, isn't it? hold that back. hold that one back. you can see, now this is a normal airbag deployed. this is the front of what we are are -- would be facing the driver in the steering wheel. it deploys. if it deploys normally it is supposed to look look like that. okay? this is what happened in this case that i just referenced in louisiana. that is blood but look at the tear in the airbag.

you can see that it obviously has been punctured. and instead of it being like that the shrapnel in the inflater which is this device which is in the steering wheel underneath the steering wheel and this explodes sending hot gas out and inflating the airbag. when it is defective, it explodes with such force that it actually breaks open the metal and the metal goes out and then of course instead of the airbag saving lives it is killing people.

let me show you. that is a piece of metal that actually came out on this lady and this lady is in miami last july. look how big that is. now, that hit her and thank goodness it hit her there in a relatively superficial wound that is a permanent scar. what if had hit her there? or what if it had hit her there? that is the piece that hit her. this is deadly serious business.

just last friday we learned of the eighth death. southern california, conclusively tied to a defective tekata airbag. some of these victims family's got recall notices after their loved ones were killed. and in addition to the eight deaths this committee has learned of allegations of well over 100 serious injuries. i got into this thing because there was a woman killed in orlando. this is a year ago. that is how i got into this. when the police got to the car, they thought it was a homicide. they not somebody had slashed her throat. and only afterwards did they

find out that in fact this is what it was. and then i got into it because of a firefighter that lives in the orlando area won't be a firefighter again because he lost his eye now. and so i could go on and on about these incidents just in florida alone but the bottom line is we need to get these cars fixed and we have been talking about this since last year. dr. rosekind has been a breath of fresh air and you have taken numerous actions to speed up the tekata recall process, but nhtsa still faces deep challenges. for one thing, as no doubt you

will point out, it is underfunded. it lacks the necessary funding to make sure that automakers and the sticks as well as the carrot carrots it lacks to get the automakers to be forth coming about the recalls. we are not just picking on tekata. look how many deaths occurred from the gm defective steering ignition switches? gm hid a defect for over a decade. and at least 114 people died. this is awful. for that nhtsa could only find gm a measlely $35,000 and that

is less than gm makes in a quarter -- $35 million -- the chal challenged were detailed in the inspector general report released yesterday revealing problems in nhtsa's office of investigation especially related to the handling of the gm crisis last year. i can tell you this senator is going to fight for additional funding for nhtsa. there has to be accountability as well. and the ig report found severe deficiencies in nhtsa's ability to effectively collect and analyze safety data as well as conduct investigations.

the agency lacks proper protocols and procedures and staff apparently are inadequately trained to do their job. we need accountability. i look forward, doctor to hearing you you intend to respond to this report that has been put in the record now and how you continue to modernize the agency. and finally, i look forward to hearing from the representatives tekata. yesterday the staff issued a report detailing their initial findings in a month's long investigation of tekata. and for years, it is obvious, tekata did not put safety first. it appears that tekata knew or should have known as early as 2011. that is 14 years ago.

there were serious and safety quality lapses in the airbag production process and you would think they would have stepped up the safety efforts at the plans after discovering those issues. no, and by the way there are eight people dead. instead internal e-mails suggest they suspended global safety audits from '09-'11 for cost-cutting reasons and now the same company responsible for this disaster is the one making nearly all of the replacement airbags for most of the recalled vehicles. that doesn't sit well with a lot of americans and i think tekata has serious explaining to do. so for everyone involved nhtsa to automakers to the suppliers, we need to improve as fast as

possible. and we need to get the recall completed but also make sure the safety issues are spotted sooner so that dangerous vehicles are identified and fixed faster in order to do watt we are supposed to do; which is help keep consumers safe. if i found invested in this issue, mr. chairman when i saw the pictures of the woman in orlando with her neck lacerateded, i am invested. when i talked to that firefighter with his little boy with him that will never be a firefighter again because he doesn't have an eye, i am invested. so thank you for calling this hearing. >> thank you, senator nelson. now we will proceed to the panel

starting with administrator rosekind. >> chairman thune ranking member nelson and members of the committee thank you for allow me to offer an update. the recall of defective tekata airbags may represent the largest consumer safety recall in history and one of the most complicated. we are achieving one goal the only acceptable goal a safe airbag in every vehicle. on may 19th secretary fox at nhtsa took a step toward this announcing tekata filled four defect affects launching a recall of 38 million defective airbag reflectors. 11 makers have made available individual identification numbers so vehicle owners can use the vin look up tool to

determine if their vehicle is under recall. consumers should represent the dealer right away to replace the airbag. after reviewing the filings, our estimate is there are 34 million defective airbags in 32 million affected vehicles. a consent order has been issued giving nhtsa to insure the ad adequate of the remedy. late last week nhtsa sent information request to all affected automakers and other suppliers of replacement parts seeking information as part of the remedy program. we had discussions with the affected companies on a protective order allowing them to share private business information with nhtsa and

others so private concerns don't interfere with the safety efforts. nhtsa is in the process of determining whether fiat and chrysler is part of the issue. nhtsa scheduled a july hearing to look at 22,000 recalls. we are doing everything to protect the public and one critical cool is self evaluation. at the urging of secretary fox and support of staff and leadership, and before i arrived, nhtsa was involved in tough self examining after one of the toughest years. on june 5th nhtsa released two reports. the first report nhtsa's path forward provides the result of a year long due diligence review of the defect process finding weakness in processes for identifying and addressing the

defects. we are addressing them underway and within existing resources. the second record is a workforce assessment detailing how the budget request specifically request the mission needs. in addition the report examines the workforce of net given the 265 million vehicles we monitoring compared to other modes of transportation. it it provides one possible path for matching the request. the inspector general performed an audit of the investigation of the gm ignition switch defect and we thank inspector calvin scovel and their report is a helpful contribution and we conquered with all 17 recommendations from the report. to give you a sense of how nhtsa is identifying and addressing the safety defects we have initiated 44 separate changes to improve our effectiveness including efforts to address 10-17 recommendations from the

audit that were underway before the release of the audit. outside of the spoke, two things are essential to achieving this. the first is gm's concealment. we would question the information nhtsa gets from industry and question our own assumption assumptions. the second factor is available resources. the same 51 people managing the tekata recall include eight that analyzed 80,000 consumer complaints and eight others received recall campaigns underway. the agency must accomplish this with a budget that when adjusted for inflation is 23% lower than ten years ago. the president's budget request would provide the people and technology needed to keep americans safe. secretary fox has proposed the grow america act that provides

stable increased funding and important safety authorities to help nhtsa. it is clear that gaps in available personal and authority represent known safety risks. the members of this committee can help nhtsa address the risk and keep the traveling public safe. thank you for the opportunity to testify and i look forward to your testimony. >> thank you mr. rosekind. mr. calvin scovel. >> chairman thune, ranking member nelson members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to discuss nhtsa's vehicle oversight. strong oversight is critical for taking timely action against vehicle defects such as gm's faulty ignition switch. this defect has been linked to more than 110 fatalities and 210 injuries. airbag non-deployment cause us to look at certain gm vehicles since as early as 2007 but an investigation was not warranted

and we know the faulty ignition switch can disable to vehicle's power steering brakes and airbags. today i will discuss the weaknesses we identified relating to the procedure for collecting and analyzing vehicle safety data and determining which issues warrant further investigation. i will also show how the weaknesses we identify affected the handling of the ignition switch devapidity -- defect. we identified three areas of weakness to identify safety vehicle concerns. first, odi lacks the procedures needed to collect complete and accurate vehicle safety data. the use of the early warning data is limited due to the inconsistency of how they characterize the incidents. there are 24 categories for reporting defects related to an

average of 15,000 vehicle components long beacheaving manufacturers to use broad data when reporting. similarly, they lack information to correctly identify the vehicle systems involved due in large part to the lack of guideianceguide guidance to consumers. they don't verify the data or enforce the compliance with reporting requirements. second odi does not follow standard statistical practices in analyzing early warning reporting data. therefore it cannot identify significant trends or outliers that may indicate the safety issue should be pursueded. in addition, despite the volume of complaints that averaged 334

are a day in 2015 odi relies on one screener in the first phase of the two-tiered screening process and this process leaves the office vulnerable to a single point of failure and runs the risk that complaints may not be selected for further review. in adequate training increases the risk. third, odi emphasizse the investigation. they are using screeners not trained to carry out these responsibilities. stakeholders within odi haven't reached agreement on the amount and type needed to open investigation and odi doesn't

document the justification for decisions not to investigate potential safety issues. this lack of transparency and accountability in odi's investigation decisions further undermines the effort to identify needed recalls and other corrective actions. these three proceedal weaknesses impeded odi's handling of the switch defect. from 2003-2013 gm submitted 15,000 non hp field reports and 2,000 death and injury reports on vehicles that would be subject to the ignition switch recall. however, inconsistently miscatagorized may have missed the trend. there was no component report to the death and injury report. not airbags or electrical even

though it was said ignition switches were involved in the possibility non-airbag deployment. 12 reports categorized under airbags and may have been relate today the ignition switch defects were not reviewed before the recall because nhtsa's tools couldn't read the report format by gm. a fact not noted until after the recall. odi staff also missed opportunities to connect the ignition switch to the abs. calls for investigations were similarly overlooked. for example, in 2007 nhtsa's associated administrator said it

looks like one we need to jump on and learn about. the defect assessment division chief didn't assign the responsibility after the screener left nhtsa in 2008. in 2010 odi screener suggested revisiting the 2007 investigation proposal because of new consumer complaints but the airbag investigator noted a downward rate and the screener decided that the issue didn't present enough safety trend to warrant proposing another investigation. according to odi staff. they had a flawed understanding

of airbag technology. they are taken aggressive action to strengthen the vehicle oversight. according to the administrator changes to the process have been implemented and more are underway. we plan to report our findings later this year and i would like to address those who have been injured and the family's of those who have been lost in crashes involving gm's defective switches. i promised you my staff and i would work relentlessly to

determine what nhtsa knew of the defect, what it knew and what actions to took to address it. our auto report issued last week and my testimony today will fill that promise. i offer my deepest sympathy. this concludes my statement and i would be happy to answer any other statement you and others have. >> mr. rosekind i know you took the realm of nhtsa last year and have been working to improve the handling of the vehicle defects and i would say you have your work cut out for you. the inspector general's report reaches serious conclusions regarding the ability to defect vehicle defects highlighting things like failure to review information provided by consumer and industry botched data analysis inadequate training and supervision are major problems with the agencies. all of these have to concern you.

we have to make sure automakers report safety violations it doesn't help if nhtsa's staff is not reviewing the information or when they do they are not imploring standard procedures. these processes can't be solved by throwing additional resources at the problem. my question is how do you propose to address these issues? >> thank you for acknowledgeing the challenges exist. we conquered with 17 recommendations that validate and are consistent with the reports reports. i would like to provide the committee with 44 actions underway that go to detailed action on each element from communication to case management

to test to make sure everyone of those -- and i am highlighting we are doing 44. we will continue to look for every place possible to make changes. with that i think we will look for internal changes we can but what is critical about the report also, both outside the report to talk about the resources, so many people heard me discuss 80,000 complaints. we are literally looking at an individual screener having to have five reports analyzed every hour. each report takes an hour. so when the ig report says it is inadequate i agree and we have to change those. >> you identified three general concerns in the audit with the office of defects and investigation. in your opinion, what does nhtsa need most? more information? more expertise? or better pract analyzing the

data they receive? >> i would say it is on nhtsa to press forward with the changes we outlined in the audit report and testimony today. very pleased to understand the administrator has conquered in all 17 of our recommendations and in fact in his response to our audit report last week indicated a very aggressive schedule signaling his intent to press forward. i understand the administrator's request for resources that ultimately represents a policy decision between the administration and congressism. i am aware of that and respect my role. i would have to say allocating more resources to an effort or agency whose processes are not in line in the first place doesn't seem like a good idea. we would urge the administrator to press forward with the aggressive timeline to address our recommendation as well as

his own process in order to handle this. >> mr. rosekind you have recently taken unprecedented steps with regard to nhtsa's handling of the inflaters including a pres preservation ordermentorder. how does the agency plan to implement this program? >> it was this committee that helped focus the issue and the action needed. that all changed on may 19t. we went from denying the defect to acknowledging it with the consent order helping us e evaluate the remedy. there is more advance prior

priortization. we have sent a letter outlining all of the information we need to determine how this has to proceed. the first meeting is scheduled for july 1 with each of those groups. there will be individual and group meetings through july with hope that august will take all of the information, put to together, and planning for a public hearing in september that would allow us to lay out the program which is complicated. >> and very quickly, mr. scovel can you discuss the difficulties receiving consumer complaint and how would clearer guidelines benefit the public. >> we would highlight a couple things for the committee's attention. first in the way nhtsa collects the data. data quality has to be an ultimate concern for the effort to identify vehicle safety defects because if that is not of the highest quality then

defects will be missed and resources may be squandered. the accuracy and timelyness is essential. and data comes from a number of sources. the early reporting data from manufacturer needs to be improved. as we have shown and nhtsa has acknowledged, the categorizeing of the defects means the data quality is diffused and the best analyst would not be able to reach a proper conclusion on data that is not supportable. we also would note that, and i commend the administrator for his attention to that and remarks of them intending to follow-up with manufacturers more often. in our interviews of every employee in the office of defects and representative of

each contractors that work in that effort we learned from the highest sources in that office that they generally implore what he calls an honor system to determine whether manufacturers are meeting the requirement for the early reporting data. for a safety regulator to they can that approach sir we think is not keeping the best interest of the public in mind. consumer complaints mr. chairman, which has been the primary source for nhtsa to identify safety concerns are also diffused have been watered down in affect because of a lack of guidance from the agency to consumers who were seeking to report accidents and defects through the agency. but they will find themselves at a loss when con firming on the website 18 different category

codes in a vehicle that has 15,000 components and they themselves are not automotive experts. some consumers are going to get it wrong. many others the most well meaning and those who have been impacted by vehicle safety defects, will read the data and attempt to follow it as best as they are able to. the agency performance will improve as a result. >> senator nelson. >> you know, there is a pattern here among these regulatory agencies that are supposed to be looking out for the consumer. we saw this about ten years ago with a consumer product safety commission when we had all of that chinese drywall problem the defective chinese toys and no forth, and theyed a card table

was their research department, we are hearing stuff about the agency we are trying to sort out. tell me, mr. rosekind you came up with 33.8 million vehicles to be recalled on this tekata matter. how did you come up with that number? >> so our estimate is that there are about 34 million inflaters that are defective. and they are in about 32 million vehicles. so that is acknowledgment that come vehicles have driver and passenger airbags that need to be replaced. it includes some cars have remedies they need to come back again. that is why 34 million inflaters in 32 million vehicles. >> do you have the vehicle identification number for all of those? >> they have been provided by all 11 manufacturer at this point.

>> we will be giving a list of everything we are discussing but it is an ongoing investigation. we cannot start looking. i am give you 44 areas and if you want i would rather give you the list for the moment. but part of it has to be that list and ongoing evaluation to make sure we are improving the process and doing it better. >> i want to suggest one area. in this odni as the inspector

general has talked about, you get about 80,000 complaints each year yet there is one person that person who spends four hours a day on this would have to review process and follow on and flag over 80 complaints an hour and that is less than one complaint a minute. so how in the world can you get it done? >> you can't. and that is why i agree the ig's report. it specifically called out the

scanning of those reports inadequate. it is. and that is a resource issue. you have too many complaints and not enough people. that is a triaug point to get it somewhere else. -- >> i will yield the rest of my time. >> senator mccaskill is up next. >> thank you, chairman and senator nelson for your focus on this issue. as chairman and the ranking member know we did a lot of hearing around the gm recall and the nhtsa. i want to begin with safety. honda confirmed that the eighth death linked to a faulty airbag in company, this was a rental car from sunset rental car in san diego that never made the

repairs after the recall. there is legislation that would prohibit a rental car from being rented until open safety recalls are in fact remedied. we have support of the rental car industry consumer and safety advocates and insurance companies and general motors but unfortunately many automanufacturers are blocking this legislation through the alliance of automobile manufacturers. they are saying they should only be grounded if there is a do not drive. have any of the 11 manufacturers issued a do not drive recall related? >> not that i am aware of and annual that is small. >> what about nhtsa? do you support the efforts we

have going on to ground rental cars that haven't been prepared? >> absolutely. >> i would like to put the american car rental association and consumer safety's written statement for the record if i might. >> without objection. >> i want to go to this audit and my colleagues are patient because i am an audit weirdo. i used to read this and calvin scovel knows i happen somebody who assumes these things. this audit report is one of the worst i have ever seen in terms of government agencies. the reason it is so bad -- i agree calvin scovel this isn't about resources. this is about blatantly being in incompetent. let's go through one of many shortcomings and this jumped out at me.

when to open an investigation. if nhtsa isn't clear when an investigation should be opened we might as well shutdown it down. severity of issues and identification of root cause. based on the interviews the inspector general did there is disagreement in our agencies on when an investigation can be opened even. the general council said severity must be established for all cases along with frequency and root causes. the section chief says all three should be met. the odi's director doesn't think a root cause is necessary and prefers to focus on safety consequences and the two chiefs agree a root cause is not

necessary. you have got key personal within your agency that are not even on the came page about when an investigation should occur. do you believe everyone working there knows their authorities? did you believe there is a clear understanding about what the investigative authorities are at nhtsa? >> i think the people that have this specific authority assigned to them are aware of those but you have just highlighted where those lines have been blurred and clarification is needed. >> well on average, only four

times a year over the past four years as odi even requested underlying documentation for death and injury reports. four times a year. that is stunning to me. and although you have the authority to inspect manufacturer's records, nhtsa told the ig the agency has never used this authority. never used the authority to inspect manufacturer's records for com compliant with early morning requirements. you can understand the severity of the situation before you and i was shocked when i read this report how bad it was. i knew it was bad when the acting director before you didn't even know you had su subpoena power. we will be watching the kind of work you do immediately.

i disagree with my colleague. i am not about to give you more money until i see meaningful progress on reforming the internal processes in the organization. you cannot start throwing money until you have a system in place until you can make sure it will function like it should. we have a long way to go and i would hope mr. chairman we do a follow up every four to six months to see how they are doing on the ig's list because i think the public does so much better than the cop on the meet. >> senator klobuchar. >> thank you for holding this hearing. i think it is incredibly important we follow-up with hearings like this after something mainly major happens.

last november it was found tekata airbags were rupturing in high humidity areas i called on them to expand the recall nationwide and they responded last month. one of the individuals affected by the tekata airbags was a woman from north oaks minnesota is now blind. she was a passenger in what we consider a minor fender bender and she is blind. what tools does nhtsa need to make companies act sooner? >> we are looking at authorities, other safety agencies have hazard. if a hazard was identified we would have been able to take the tekata airbags off the street

sooner. >> would that be established by law? >> those are authorities, you congress, have to provide. >> this is fully responding to nhtsa's order in getting them to act. >> yes and i think you were pointing out we were able to go to $14,000 a day. but on the list of authorities in grow america that is another one. the maximum penalty is $35 million and we are looking for $300 million. >> last month, nhtsa filled intent of opening a coordinated program to consider whether, and if so how nhtsa will exercise authority to prioritize the recall and remedy program. how are they approaching the replacement of the airbags to insure vehicles most at risk are replaced first? >> that is why we sent out information to 11 manufacturers

and seven supplies and collecting information to put a plan together for just that. people talked about an accelerated remedy and this is prioritizing to make sure people in the area who have been identified, those people need to replace as soon as possible. >> switching to the gm issue which you are also aware of we had a case of a woman from minnesota riding in a chevy cobalt and the car's power went out and barreled ahead at 71 miles per hour and the woman and a passenger were killed when it ran into a tree. the report found keith young conducted an investigation into the crash that made the link between the defective ignition switch and failure of the airbag

to deploy. it cracked the code. he wrote the two front seat airbags didn't deploy and it appears the ignition switch was turned from the run position to the accessory prior to the collision. we know this is troubling and in december i asked what concrete changes would be made to improve the customer complaint process and i would like to know what system nhtsa put in place to make sure if the investigators are in possession of critical information like trooper young's report i would like insurance they are acting. >> i will start by acknowledging this committee whether it is your opening statement mentioning safercar.gov or you talked about the tragedies going on. it is critical to know these are real people being affected. thank you for doing that. i would say specifically we talked about this in my

conformation hearing and we have new systems in place such as a case management system allowing crash investigators and screenings and panels to look at the information from multiple sources all in one place. it is an attempt to connect the dots so the people working on this have available information. >> i know there were 260 complaints over an 11-year period from consumers that the vehicle turned off while they were driving. and over the 11 years they were not connected you said there has been a change but how does the change and work affect? >> panels and screeners having access to information. there could have been an update previously to information and the person responsible for the case didn't get an alert of the update. you have more data and making sure every time there is new data the individual responsible gets all of the information in one place. >> very good. well, thank you very much. i will have more questions for the record probably.

thank you again, senator thune and senator nelson. >> next up is the ranking member on the subcommittee for consumer protection somebody who has been involved in these issues. i would like to recognize senator blumenthal. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to express my appreciation to you having this hearing today which i know reflects your own interest in caring about the subject and to my colleague from florida, thank you for your powerful statement. i want to pursue some of the lines that have been raised. lines of questions that reflect the real life consequences you said. just to show you first, one of the airbags that actually bears the mark ineffect exploding

shreds of metal that injured eight people and were killed and many others but the real default is not with the a airbag. there is no blood on the airbags but some may say there is blood on the hands of the tekata makers who concealed and covered up the deadly affects of the explosion. the fault is really this device. the inflater. because it contained a substance that caused this explosion, ammonioum nitrate and the question for tekata today is whether these devices are any safer then they were when they killed eight people. and the evidence may well show

that these inflaters are as dangerous today as they were when tekata first learned they were potential killers, some years ago as early as 2004-2006 and that they are as dangerous today and should be completely revamped and revised in their basic design and structure. the number of deaths reported so far is eight. i feel that that number is a lot like the number 13 that was first acknowledged by gm as caused by its defective ignition switch. we now know that number is at least 117 because of the findings of the compensation found that gm established only

after i and others on this committee called for them to do it. that number of eight may grow. it may be only the tinaly fractional tip of the iceberg of death that was caused by these exploding airbags. and so i believe, as has been stated that this report is a devastating indictment of an agency that was responsible for are protecting the public. let's not forget the responsibility of corporate executives who could have and should have fully disclosed and then protected their customers from these devastatingly deadly devices. ...

institutional change and the new laws that give you the tools to you need. so he dominated the caps on penalty, not just waiting for them, but eliminating the penalty for nondisclosure. the early warning reporting act so you can take action the automaker accountability act that i propose as well as criminal penalties not just on the company billed the corporate executives when they cover up or conceal the defects. and as my colleague already said rental car companies need to be

held accountable to the used car dealer at least one of these occur as a result of a used car and they can't find the owner of the car because he or she bought it as a used car. they are required to repair under the current law but there is no requirement if they fix any outstanding safety defects before selling used cars and this gap is in the consumer protection and puts people at risk. so i think there are a number of acts that can be taken and not the least of which has happened with the gm ignition defect to be disclosed.

the settlements ought to be banned. that's why it still poses the sunshine litigation act. i want to know whether you will join me in seeking these basic fundamental reforms. we can blame as much as we wish for the failure of the past and there have been deadly failures. but repairing the system and restore to and we forgive you for reforming it ought to be our concern and it's not just oversight but it's addressing these problems giving you new tools at your successor so that there is real institutional change to the hispanic i just want to start by saying thank you because what you are seeing

are the tools available to us to get action. if we don't have those authorities or even the maximum is effective we can't do our job. so we will support and provide any assistance to help the new authorities. >> and you need more resources do you not? it's something like 30 times your budget and 6,000 employees. is that not a glaring deficiency that doesn't reflect a lack of investment in the agency and in the safety of the roads and drivers? >> you are citing a chart that makes that comparison? so with under 500 deaths they have over 6,000 safety professionals working at that number. in the rail industry they have 110, and they've got close to 700 professionals working on

that and 32719 lives lost on the roadways and we have 90 people dealing with those. >> is our airplane and airspace were as dangerous as the cars and roads corporate officials would be indicted and there would be sweeping changes in the airline industry. the lack of dramatic crashes is perhaps what enables the crash by crash tragedies that have been detailed and the nation has to make the kind of investment in your agency that has made him the safety of our airspace. >> the senator followed by senator daynes.

i will go over and vote and if we want to ask people questions and we will pick up as soon as we get you with the vote. >> thank you very much. senator blumenthal and i have a bill. the reporting system improvement act that requires automakers to automatically provide more documents about potentially defective cars that requires them to make more of that information available to the public so that it can protect itself and we can't get back the people whose lives were lost to the ignition switch effect. we can't get back the people who were related to the airbags. but you do have the authority to implement many of the changes

that the marquee blumenthal early reporting bill requires. you can take permanent measures. to put them information about the defects into the hands of the public in case the analysts failed to spot the next ignition switch exploding airbag defect. you can look at the families that lost their parents and children spouses, siblings because of these defects into buchanan told them that you did everything. you could to make sure that their lives were not lost in vain. will you call for the blue making to require automakers to alert them to fatal defects and to have ntsa look into this? >> we will make that information

available. many have already been raised and available that would have helped save lives. our interest will be to look at that and the current legal requirements of the confidentiality wouldn't actually impede that objective. >> will you do a rulemaking in order to make sure that there is a formalized process to insure that the information does. they don't have the federal restrictions in the privacy for example. three of >> what you do the rulemaking consisted in the privacy act and confidential proprietary information to ensure the rulemaking that any information will be made public and that the

auto industry will be forced to give you that information will you conduct of the rule making to conduct that will? >> whether or not it is even needed. >> so you will do everything that is allowed by law to insure that they will provide you with the information about the defects and that will then release that information? will do everything that is allowed texas to access to mcvey will look into it to provide transparency yes. >> and you're saying you do not need a rulemaking to accomplish that? will you do with a rulemaking if one is required after you determine the scope of the authority with the existing rules will you do with a

rulemaking if it is necessary? >> if you would be it would be useful for the transparency, yes. >> that's very important. i think that while give the information to the public. if people can go online to buy the car they should be able to go online to determine if the car had a defect. the sooner you put it online, the sooner you put that information up the sooner they get that information out there it is accountable into the industry will know that the consumers will be came. they will be protecting the family. they will be able to ensure any successor ntsa is accountable and if ensures that information is made public. we have another bill and that phil is -- bill is one that says it's a used car that may have a

recall. that actually ensures that there is a replacement part. but the person that purchased the car really doesn't know about it. so our bill would require that when the owner registers the cars they are made aware of the safety defects and that those repairs are made. would you support that? >> it would be the touch points to get that informed. we talk about it because at this point there is no sense of the technology to do that and making sure that the consumers basically don't have any negative effects. so it could be the that such point that is used. we are suggesting a pilot program to work out the technology to figure out how it

could go national. >> i'm doing the heavy lifting right now with the gavel. >> i hear you when you say that they need our help and if the agency is going to be able to deliver effective oversight, we need to consider increasing the funding for the crash data collection systems and enhance the office of defect investigations. but before that happens you must prove your agency can do this and have the procedures to ensure it is done in a timely manner. often times it means more death

and problems. i see the incredible effort they are making for the collision avoidance and mitigation. the new developments are going to be traveling on the nation's roads much safer smarter energy efficient and less congested. in congress i believe they need to do their part to promote the policies to help us in this area of safety and mobility to ensure that nhtsa has the resources to not only address the major issues of this facing one in particular with airbags but also encourage the development of the technologies that have the potential to save thousands of lives in the future but it will be difficult to secure the funding and the ability to move this incredible technology forward if folks like myself and fellow members are not confident that the resources were going to be deployed in an effective manner and as the report has

made clear, there is a considerable amount of work to do. this is a -- to recall is unprecedented in the scale. and you've introduced a number of programs and initiatives in order to do this. in your own internal funding report and how you anticipate the agency being about to implement these recommendations before the end of the year can you say that nhtsa can adequately coordinate if you are in the middle of right now and implement reforms without more funding from congress? >> we already have that plan in place. there will be an opportunity to see the effectiveness of the agency to be able to use these resources, to be able to do this in an expedited way.

spike in the lack of transparency and accountability the severely sufficient workforce in volume and expertise as i mentioned earlier and you've mentioned here you deliver to 17 recommendations and nhtsa has concurred. you've provided detailed actions and steps to make the changes but based on now you have intimate knowledge of the agency as a result of your work. do you bb the agency is capable of making these changes and how long do you think it will take? >> i would hold the administrator to his word when he responded to the audit report he indicated not only conquering, but a very aggressive intent to make good on all of those and a relatively short timeframe in our experience dealing with similar reports and other modes of the department of transportation. clearly the burden is on the agency at this point to make

good on its promises to reform its processes so that it may then come to congress and say we are prepared to handle what we have and by the way we may be able to do and even better job should the policy matter be afforded more resources. >> you set an aggressive timeline of one year again based on the in based on the knowledge and e. have a lot of experience with a lot of different agencies. is that a realistic timeline? >> is. we will bird-dog these organizations and implementation of them as carefully as we have anything else in our long history of providing oversight for the department of safety

regulatory agencies. >> we will be working with you closely. that's been my frustration when you get the recommendations from the ig there's lipservice but never follow the surface but never follow through and one-year term than two years and three years. in the work of the case of the agency its people's lives at stake and we need to have a robust regulator that is also able to help us in the industry and in the auto industry to move to even more dramatic safety improvements with some of the technologies coming forward so i look forward to working with both of you thank you so much. >> it looks like you and i are going to have a one time conversation. because i don't appreciate your work and i appreciate both witnesses being here and i will complete the questioning we have more members back when they get back from the floor so hopefully if not we will go to recess until they do.

but i want to talk about it about the gap in the protection that others are talking about last saturday i dropped my daughter's car off at the dealership with most of the work myself, my father owned in automotive business and it was an independent auto repair service and so the question becomes the second owner, third owner, fourth owner of a particular vehicle. when i went into that dealership, do they have an obligation to tell me if there is a recall on a particular make and model? >> it's part of of our growth america request to get that independent. if you go to that new car dealer they should get that for you automatically. >> if you go to a new car dealership today, are they obligated on a service maintenance contract that you might have with them to tell you if there is a recall?

what are they obligated on are they required? >> yes. >> because i did ask and they gave me the reason to. but i don't know that i've ever been to the dealership that i've dropped a car off and that they've told me -- and maybe they don't have to unless you have a recall so i'm not putting that into question. so if i took the vehicle instead of to a jiffy lube they wouldn't be obligated to tell me if there was a recall? >> none of them are responsible. >> how is that going to change? >> we have asked them to change that so that everybody not just the new car manufacturers would also be required to run a check and inform you. >> so if your tendency is to bring your car to an independent station, what is your alternative than to know about

the recall? >> if anybody on the regular basis even weekly goes to look at the number. i guarantee my daughter wouldn't. there is the gap. i know that you are a parent and i hope you had a good father's day. how do you protect that child as a parent that represent everybody in the room how do you protect that child knowing? a better question. >> i'm going to find that out. we are with you.

there's so there is so much discussion about recall fatigue. it's already creating a national campaign. they ran quick to the ticket. we want to use the same effectiveness to go after the issue. it's great to come here and announce that there are too many people like our kids that are not going to do that. we have to find how to fill those gaps. >> thank you for the hard work both of you. i'm going to go down on the floor i will turn it over at this point. thank you very much. >> i truly am grateful for the airbags that killed the league -- the airbags that killed me attention and for the

underscores and for the lack of efficacy last summer there was an international model 4800 that the front axle look sad and it caused -- have to break, sees that the left wheel, front wheel. it was coming down highway 12 outside of hello my montana. i drive this all the time. during the daylight hours, the weather conditions were fine and they veered into oncoming traffic and the volunteer fire chief in the truck was held in a very violent head-on collision and there was a family of five. i would drive back and forth and

it stays after it happened and you can see the marks coming in is in the straightaway. this particular has been called in to the 500 vehicles. the notifications went out and it turns out this exact component was a nhtsa approved solution to the previous recall that occurred in 2003. with that as background, the recent oig report frequently makes references to the defects and the lack of process

procedures in the data and analysis contained in analysis contained in the reports, which i've looked over. they made 17 recommendations to improve early data verification processes and things in the external reviews and evaluates the staff training needs among the other recommendations. fortunately this isn't the first time any of the recommendations have been made. they had similar issues and made similar recommendations in 2002 and 2004 and 2011 and 2014 and now here we are in 2015. so my question is how they declared a safety recall two months after the accident. they moved quickly in the interim solution. 12 months after the final recall is being sent into and a solution is being executed. you mentioned in the testimony

of the automaker's response ability to remedy the defects of compliments. my question is why is it taking a year for something like this and whether the science and engineers to expedite the solution to mitigate the safety risks for all of americans. >> i said this earlier and i don't know if i can say it enough but story about the tragedy of the lives lost can't be told enough tickets to every one of the tragedies. what you're highlighting is something we've emphasized. if they are not remedied you still have the risk and that's what is going on here and part of the challenge you're citing is making sure that in a timely manner the correct long-term permanent solution is in place. so you can count on me going back to find out the specifics even more than you are telling me now to see what is going on.

>> is also the face of innocence turning back to three or four spots. it was a nice evening and a straightaway and you see this young couple and kids in the back of a pickup and if it is a road i drive all the time it's the innocence of the lives lost. >> if you look at the speed of which the remedies are put in place, i would greatly appreciate you taking a look at that. and part of that is how many times has a nhtsa had more than one recall on the same people components? and i know that you are new to the job and i appreciate your leadership and i know we have belonged a long to do list but i would appreciate you looking into that. the office of inspector general

maintained stats on how often the components are recall it more often than once. it is something to look at in the process and of a systemic challenges that exist with the goal of preventing the tragedies from ever happening again. the pain never goes away. they had over a decade to implement the numerous recommendations from your office. what do you see the challenge on why it is taking so long to implement? >> some of those recommendations were for the circumstances in

the programs we were examining at the time. in the 2004 reports that you referenced, we are examining nhtsa's ability to implement requirements of the newly enacted act. in 2011, we were looking at the investigative phase can barely have nhtsa's obligations operations and in the early phase i don't want to sound like an overly parsing this that we are trying to defect every phase of the application with the idea of being able to command what's going on right, what's going on wrong and make effective recommendations to improve. the recommendations in this case all concurred by the agency very aggressive timeline for their implementation. we believe they can all be implemented in fact in the current resources. and i think that is the agency's intent.

most commendable on their part. but the doctor is attempting to do in our estimation is to change the organizational culture at least the defect investigation and resolution part of the operation. >> and i spent 20 years in business before i took this different job on the hill. they always say it's what you in insects, not expect and in the clear metrics. it should be gone speed instead of how quickly we are going from an accident to action in the field here that's going to correct the defect. it seems like when they were in the field within the two months why to take the federal agency of the year before we -- gives a ten month gap. >> and i think you're talking

about safety steps that can be taken by way of corrective action or by way of recall. remember for again if you will come out worker and audit focused on the pre- investigative phase, we did get to the timing element of that part of nhtsa's effort. our audit report, but so much the statement today, but a report released at the end of last week did discuss at some length, the length of time it took for the investigative proposal to be evaluated if and assessed in the investigation. that is a step of of course because the longer you won't ever going to get to the action or the recall in the position of the influence by nhtsa unless you get through this investigation proposal of the evaluation and decision stage. we found one instance where the investigation languished five months. this is recently. another one had been on the

books for more than a year without resolution. there is a pattern for evaluation and discussion within the office of the defect investigation of some of these investigative proposals. but again, to pick up on the opening remarks at this point, question assumptions. one of the assumptions that desperately must be questioned is how can we speed up the decision so that we can get to the decision to investigate sooner and hopefully upon the investigation get to the decision on the corrections. >> i'm assuming they are for though and we probably identified the problem and how to mitigate the risk. it just seems as though we are seeing a pretty big gap and i appreciate your efforts to change the culture and look at the ways that we can move

faster. the senator and the chairmen have just returned. i am going to turn it back to you. thank you for the comments. >> thank you for presiding here. we will get you to devote. that wraps up the first panel. so thank you for your time and testimony and response to the questions. i want to invite the second panel to come up and we will get going on it.

>> [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> we want to welcome our second panel of witnesses this morning. thank you for being here for the testimony. i want to hand it off for opening statements. we have the executive vice president of north america. the senior vice president of vehicle compliance known as

chrysler group and the executive vice president for honda. so i'm going to ask on your left and buying right it my right if you proceed with your testimony and we will go from there and if you can as close to five minutes as possible and take it from there. >> is it on now? ranking member nelson and distinguished members of the committee, i am honored to be here on behalf of cover employees throughout the united states. safety is the core of what we do and who we are. we are proud the air bags have saved thousands of lives and pay them to do serious injuries in the hundreds of thousands of

accidents. it is unacceptable to us for even one of our products to fail to perform as intended. we deeply regret instances in which someone has been injured or killed. we will do everything in our power to address the safety concerns raised. our chairmen met twice with the administrators and made that commitment personally. that's why after months of testing and extensive analysis of voluntarily agreed to take a broad action in conjunction with the automakers to respond to your concerns and those of the public. our agreement contemplates dramatically expanding recalls including national going well beyond the scope of the risk by the science and the testing. based on 57,000 tests have returned into leaders in the years of research by leading experts from around the world the best current judgment is the

rupture issues are related to long-term exposure over many years to persist in the conditions of high heat and absolute humidity. for some of these issues may involve potential manufacturing and vehicle specific factors. most have involved water into leaders in the high heat and absolute humidity. in and all of the analysis to date indicates it is limited to an extremely small fraction of indicators. that's why the filing states that safety related defect may arise. not all of the inflators are covered by the recalls are defective. but even one rupture is too many so the remedy program is much broader. most of the injuries and fatalities in the u.s. have both the driver side airbag inflators including the propellant.

we have agreed to replace all from the starter production through the end of production in any vehicle registered anywhere in the united states. these will proceed in stages and the final stage will include the replacement of the batwing inflators previously installed as remedy parts. we are ceasing production of the inflators altogether. there've been far fewer rupture is evolving passenger side airbags and nevertheless our agreement also contemplates significantly expanded recalls for the passenger airbag inflators. to support them, the total production of replacement kits from north america will soon reach 1 million per month. we have augmented our capacity to produce by including inflators made by other suppliers. we are investing in innovation and working with our automaker

customers to develop a range of products. at the same time continuing to serve customers by producing airbag inflators that use space stabilized the test distinct benefits over the alternative. we have full confidence in the safety and we are using various technologies in response to the recall. the process of qualifying takes time and for certain types of airbags and certain vehicle models can't best solution is to use existing technologies in place of the original unit. we agree with nhtsa but it's absolutely the right response not to wait but replace an older unit with a new innovator. doing so has a certain benefit. we've agreed with takata to do ongoing testing to verify the safety and service of the parts.

if they need to be replaced we will act before the risk of that church development. we are also supporting the testing work of the automakers as well as the work of the independent quality assurance panel led by the secretary of transportation. and we will work with the automakers to get the word out to maximize the recall completion rates three and we will continue to do all we can to ensure the safety and keep you and the public updated on the progress. thank you mr. chairman. >> chairman, ranking member nelson, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear and provide an update on this important matter. i am the senior vice president head of vehicle safety regulatory compliance at former chrysler. i lead an organization with

mission safeguarding customers that we embrace with passion. as you note the involvement with takata airbags is extensive, proactive and ongoing. today's automobiles are among the most sophisticated complex consumer goods on the market. manufacturers are more committed than ever to developing advanced safety technologies to reduce fatalities and injuries resulting in a motor vehicle crashes. on a dalia basis we work to design for engineering and manufacture vehicles to withstand the operating conditions. promoting and ensuring the safety is a responsibility shared by automaker suppliers, government and consumers. we look forward to continuing this collective engagement with takata and nhtsa to address the critical situation related to the inflators. we've remained actively engaged since i spoke with the committee last november. much has transpired since that

time through multiple campaign expansions and based on the information from both takata and nhtsa they are on the process of recalling 4.8 million inflators across the united states. we are taking actions determining the raptors which remains with no one at this time and if they are an active participant in the independent testing coalition the group consisting of all of the affected manufactures formed in december of 2014, and again trying to determine the root cause of the raptors. in addition, they continue to further the resource and understanding. but despite that determination to date, the mission to identify and implement solutions that will improve the safety of the customers haven't been delayed. i'm pleased to share with the

committee. they are replacing all driver-side inflators in the recall with an alternative and permanent design provided. customers that received the inflators. the inflators that are no longer needed in the supply are being quarantined and returned. all of them will be notified to return from the update as well. in addition to driver-side efforts, they've been working with takata to continue the passenger inflators designs. these will contain an improved material as well as they protection for the propellant from the moisture exposure. these designs will complete the validation testing in august and expects to begin installing those in november of this year. to date they continue to be aware of just a single incident

involving a driver side airbag including an injury in one of the vehicles. actions demonstrate the abundance of caution we are employing. in closing i would like to read or write promoting and ensuring the safety is the responsibility shared by the suppliers government and consumers and we will continue to collaborate with takata nhtsa and others to address the matter. i want to extend my thanks for discussing this issue and i would be pleased to answer any questions. >> thank you. as the next ranking member nelson and members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to update the committee on the efforts to last appearance before the committee. we've confirmed two more customers lost their lives. one in september, 2014 and the other in april of this year as a result of takata and later

ruptures have occurred in the older model vehicles. this is heartbreaking. and a painful reminder to us of the reason. it's for the families of the victims. we sincerely apologize to them and extend our deepest sympathies. we are working very hard to solve the problem. over and above the notification to the effects of customers and we have pursued new and creative ideas to encourage customers to check their vehicles identification number in order to increase the rate of response to the recall. we have enhanced and created a site to make it easy for them to check their vehicles for the open recalls. honda is so voluntarily initiated a bilingual

advertising program to end -- m4. the commercials in full-page newspaper ads represented here to my left was designed to grab the attention of customers and the nine high-temperature humidity states and the u.s. territories. we are also using social media channels in a targeted way including the facebook with good success. and let me ask mr. chairman that whenever we issue a press release or statement on the matter we request the news media help us by directing customers in the recall website to get the vehicle repaired and we have the assistance in the effort. to accelerate the actions and increase the supply of inflators, they began with supply to facilitate the repairs of these over model vehicles and that led to agreements with auto

leave in the trw to provide us with replacement parts in addition to takata. as we go to this effort and the actions taken by the dealers we are averaging more than 50,000 readers per week. we've also asked them to expand service hours and never turn away a customer with an effective vehicle. we require them to check every vehicle that comes in to the dealership. to support this policy in february we initiated a system that alerts the others whenever their staff fails to check the car brought in for service to see if it has an open recall and we've reinforced the policy to provide customers a loner or rental car free of charge while the vehicle is repaired or if they are reading for a replacement parts to be delivered. all are authorized to make a vehicle available without prior

approval. we've been searching salvage yards nationwide to secure recall the inflators and we've identified many thousands that never will be installed in another vehicle. we've enlisted the special for affected by the inflators recalls for many reasons it's difficult to locate and get them repaired. i suggested that we find a way to tie the registration process to the requirement that safety defects be addressed before the completion of the vehicle registration. subsequently injured by the rupture and who also appeared before the committee last fall joined me in writing an op-ed in support of the idea of such a registration requirement. we continue to be the there is a promise in this approach and we

want to thank the senators for introducing it. i recognize there are some issues that require further discussion but i'm convinced this is the single most significant step we can take. again i appreciate the opportunity to be here before the committee and i am happy to address your questions. >> they'd urged takata to get replacements in the vehicles of the defective airbags as quickly as possible even if the root cause hasn't been identified they have to be replaced again some years down the road. we are all concerned that this has persisted for way too long. we've got eight people have died from the numerous others have received serious injuries. takata has been looking at the problem for several years.

we need to know why this happened and make sure that it doesn't happen again. so tell me what they are doing to find the root cause. >> well, senator, we have been working with a number of avenues to get to the root cause. as you mentioned we've been working on it for a number of years. we have learned much especially the last six to eight months we understand a number of factors that caused the issues that we don't have a cause we can turn on and off but in spite of that, we've gone forward with the automakers to replace parts in

the best interest of the public safety. >> without a root cause. >> the inflators don't have the same defect so why is it a good idea to put new inflators into cars that might have the same defect. >> many of the replacement parts are alternative design. they are not the same that was used. as i mentioned particularly on the driver side they they caused all of the fatalities in the field as well as most of the serious injuries and we were not replacing them with bat wings. we will go out and get every one that was ever made including all of the remedy parts. if we are using alternative inflators from the competitors to speed up the replacement parts into the field. and then we are continuing to work to improve.

to make sure that they are safe. >> of these replacement bags are they going to be safer than the original equipment? >> what we do know is that it takes a considerably long time for the condition to manifest itself. they said seven to 12 years. so we know that there is a large increase in public safety and at the margin of safety by putting a brand-new inflators and we do know there were manufacturing defects with all of the testing in the last six months, so we

feel very confident in those that we are making today. >> takata stated as you know that they are safe in the interim that require replacement at a later date and it also endorsed this approach. you stated that chrysler will be replacing all drivers side and inflators but they designed by manufacturer to describe the design has permanent customers that received the replacement will not need to come back for another replacement. given that we still don't know the cause for this defect why are you so confident that they will not have to be replaced in the near future? >> in this case, the inflators that we are replacing with their help mind you has a track record and we are not aware of the field. we were fortunate to have the inflators with the

characteristics to utilize the token that has a track record and that explains the confidence. >> for the automakers i'm sure that you both recall because we had her in here who was seriously injured by shrapnel and testified in the hearing she took her car to the dealership and is was subject to an open recall. that's pretty incredible. three times. the question is what steps have you all taken since then and i know that you described some of them but how are you going to give us an insurance that is important safety recalls have been addressed to ensure they will be shared with customers when they get their cars in and have service?

>> it's an important question on our minds. we have more than 1200 in the united states and we are working hard with them. we've done a number of things since the last word here in november. as i mentioned we've initiated a new report that the dealer neglected to check when the customer came in. we have face-to-face meetings with the dealers and we had solid managers and district managers and every dealer and they talked about the importance of checking for over ten recalls. we have periodic regions of the dealer principals. we have in the last several us reinforced again that obligation. mr. chairman and there is sometimes turn over the need to continue to make sure that education is well understood and principles understand this is our expectation and we are going

to check every one of these. we've taken multiple efforts already and we will continue to remind them of their obligation. >> i would read a great many of the same planes that were highlighted we are doing this with respect to informing the responsibility and i would add something he mentioned earlier we made sure the technology is also there to make this a nondomestic step in the process and vehicle rolls into the dealer with most cases in the automated fashion they uploaded the information to the service writers screen and they are flagged to schedule the activity so an in admission to the responsibility and the urgency here making sure that they ached as an automatic step in the process.

>> what you all hold up that photograph please. this is the picture of a massive explosion in 2006 in the mexico plant so massive that it blew out windows. the display accused the nitrate performance to make airbag leaders is that correct? >> that is correct. >> in your written response to the november letter the kennedys that explosion was caused by improper storage of repellent to scrap.

>> that's correct. >> is that the type of concerned the safety audits were intended to identify? >> one of them yes sir. >> then why would takata decide to hold these audits for financial reasons? >> i believe you are referring to the report yesterday by the committee. i think that misrepresents what happened and if you would allow me i would explain that. but that was referring to first of all there are a number of safety. the number of audits referred to in the e-mail were not the safety and quality audits on the product first of all. i think that was implied or inferred from the report. second the only thing that was suspended was the participation of people from other regions of

the world. we helped the local safety audits. we helped the local quality audits. >> ..