Takata taps former cabinet officials for crisis advice

DETROIT -- Takata, the embattled Japanese auto supplier at the center of an expanding air bag recall, has hired three former U.S. Transportation Secretaries to advise it on how to manage the crisis, but it is not agreeing to expand the recall nationwide.

The former cabinet officials are Sam Skinner, who led the Transportation Department under President George H.W. Bush; Rodney Slater, who held the post under President Bill Clinton; and Norman Mineta, who served in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.

The Transportation Department oversees the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is seeking to expand the air bag recall from Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to the entire nation for driver's side bags.

Honda has voluntarily expanded its recall to include Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"We recognize that NHTSA has urged Takata and our customers to support expansions of the current regional campaigns in the United States," Takata Chairman and CEO Shigehisa Takada said, without saying the company would comply.

Skinner will lead a quality assurance panel that will examine how Takata can make air bags and inflators so they don't rupture. At least four people have died and many others have been injured by air bag inflators that have ruptured, causing the bags to deploy with excessive force.

Slater and Mineta will provide counsel so Takata's "responses are decisive and appropriate as we work to regain the public's trust," according to a company statement.

"Takata deeply regrets the injuries and fatalities that have occurred in accidents involving ruptured airbag inflators," Takada said in that statement.

The inflators have ruptured, most often in locations with very humid climates, spraying shrapnel throughout the vehicle. Ten automakers have recalled 7.8 million vehicles in the U.S. to replace inflators on both driver's side and passenger's side air bags.

Last month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration called for the recall of Takata's driver's side air bag inflators to be expanded nationwide after a recent incident in North Carolina, which is outside the high-humidity region of the initial recall. Other incidents have been reported in Arizona, California and Minnesota.

Read more from the original source:
Takata taps former cabinet officials for crisis advice