[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 28 (Tuesday, February 23, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S942-S943]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Takata Airbags

  Mr. President, I came here to speak about something else--something 
that looks very sinister. As a matter of fact, I ask unanimous consent 
to have two items to show to the Senate with regard to the Takata 
airbag crisis.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. NELSON. It looks kind of sinister, unfortunately, because it is. 
It is supposed to save lives, not kill. This is an airbag. It obviously 
has already been inflated. It goes right in the steering wheel, so when 
you get in an accident, this inflates and fills up with gas within a 
split second, and that protects your head and your torso from coming 
forward and being injured.
  What happens if this malfunctions, and what happens if the very 
manufacture of it causes it to malfunction under conditions? Let me 
show you what happens.
  I said these things look pretty sinister. Indeed, this is pretty 
sinister because this is a fragment that was in the metal casing in one 
of these airbags in Florida that, when it malfunctioned, caused the 
explosive force of the ammonium nitrate gas. It was so explosive that 
it ripped apart the metal casing, and this part that I am showing came 
flying into the face of the driver, severely injuring the driver. In 
this case it hit the forehead.
  I have told the Senate on many occasions that fragments of metal like 
this have come out just within the Orlando area of my State. They found 
a woman in the middle of an intersection where she had a collision, and 
when the police arrived, they found out that she was dead. She had bled 
to death. They looked at her neck and it was slashed. The police's 
immediate response was that this was a homicide. Upon reflection, she 
had a collision in the intersection that otherwise would have been a 
major fender bender, but because of a defective Takata airbag, it sent 
a piece of metal like this into her neck and cut her jugular vein.
  Near Orlando, a firefighter--a big, strapping, 6-foot-4 hunk of a 
man--doesn't have an eye anymore because a piece of metal fragment like 
this one from a Takata airbag came out when there was nothing more than 
a fender bender. When this bag exploded, it sent out a piece of metal. 
In his case, that firefighter doesn't have the sight in one eye because 
this piece of metal fragment hit him.
  Unfortunately, this has happened all over the country. Unfortunately, 
it has happened with a great deal of, shall we say, dragging of feet, 
coverup, and obfuscation. These airbags are supposed to save lives, but 
when they fail, they rupture violently and they send metal fragments 
right at the driver or the passenger.
  These Takata airbags have such an explosive force. What is behind it? 
Well, our staff on the Commerce Committee has just produced a report 
which this Senator is releasing today. It is an update on this report 
which found, through a review of recently obtained internal documents 
in the Takata Corporation, that Takata employees routinely manipulated 
safety testing data. That would be bad enough, but let's see the 
consequence of this drip, drip, drip approach to now a substantial 
number of recalls. There

[[Page S943]]

were a million vehicles recalled in 1 week, a million more the next, 
and there is no end in sight.
  A few days ago, there was a Reuters report that said that in addition 
to the already 20-plus million recalls of Takata airbags, an additional 
70 to 90 million Takata airbags may have to be recalled right here in 
the United States. Can you imagine what that is going to do to all 
these poor auto dealers? I mean, don't even speak about the person who 
is in the greatest jeopardy, the one who is behind the wheel of a car 
with an explosive grenade right in front of their face, and the grenade 
may go off. But can you imagine the poor auto dealers, the Toyotas, the 
Hondas?
  Let me tell you about the last person killed. He was in a Ford F-150 
pickup truck, and it was in South Carolina. By the time people got to 
the truck after the crash that would not have killed him, he was dead 
because of a fragment like this. I wish you could see this fragment. I 
wouldn't want that hitting me with an explosive force that inflates the 
airbag in less than 1 second. That is why the Commerce Committee has 
decided to jump all over this. We have been doing it for the last 2 
years. We had a hearing on this 2 years ago.
  On the current recall, I said it was in excess of 20 million. It is 
actually 29 million with these defective inflators. That is because 
nine people are dead and dozens are injured. We find out now that in 
all, there may be 120 million airbags that eventually in the United 
Stated alone will have to be recalled. If you want a shocking figure, 
there may be in excess of 260 million airbags recalled worldwide.
  Knowing of all these problems, it is puzzling that the consent order 
that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration signed with 
Takata allows the continued production of ammonium nitrate-based 
inflators indefinitely. Then they said that certain ones had to be 
phased out by 2018. Why isn't the NHTSA taking a more aggressive 
approach? What is going on after all of these inflators, based on what 
we see with ammonium nitrate, have exploded?
  The essence of this and of the report we are releasing today as an 
addendum to the previous report is that the current recall may have to 
be redone. Why? Because auto manufacturers are installing new live 
grenades into people's cars as replacements for the old live grenades.
  According to Reuters and the New York Times, there are also internal 
documents that show Takata officials were aware of these consistent 
problems at its manufacturing plants. These reports claim that 
officials knew of manufacturing issues that could lead to moisture 
contamination, contaminating the ammonium nitrate wafer inside of the 
airbag inflator. This just adds all the more to the finding of 
evidence.
  Last June, the oversight and investigations staff of the Commerce 
Committee released a report on the Takata airbag fiasco showing that 
the company knew there were serious production and testing issues 
dating back more than one decade. That is why we wanted to release this 
report today. Through a thorough review of recently obtained internal 
documents at Takata, it was discovered that Takata employees 
continually manipulated the safety testing done. For example, in this 
report, in a 2005 memo to the Takata vice president, an engineer at 
Takata explained that ``the integrity of the validation reports . . . 
is in serious question.''
  That engineer continued: ``These are not trivial changes in that the 
data clearly in violation of the customer specs is altered to meet the 
customer specs.'' The engineer called that ``a clear misrepresentation 
of the facts.''
  That is what the Takata engineer said to one of the Takata vice 
presidents back in 2005. That was 11 years ago.
  In a 2006 email, a different engineering manager explained that 
testing reports were ``cherry picked'' and a Takata employee was 
``schmoozed'' to accept deviations in the data.
  So was he schmoozed or intimidated? Whatever it was, it was altering 
what was the truth. The manager concluded--this is the Takata manager 
in 2006, which was 10 years ago--that ``the plant should have been 
screaming bloody murder long ago.''
  Well, if I were a lawyer making a case to a jury, I would rest my 
case right now. The fact is, we are not lawyers arguing to a jury. As 
Senators, we are here to try to protect the American people. And this 
data manipulation has continued. Even after the recalls had been 
announced and the rupturing inflators had caused deaths and injuries, 
the data manipulation continued.
  I will give an example. A 2010 presentation explains that an 
experimental inflator was experiencing a significant safety and weld 
quality issue. According to that presentation, ``[Takata Japan] was 
informed of these results, but altered them and reported good results 
to Honda.'' Furthermore, even when these issues were raised to senior 
Takata employees, no action was taken.
  In a Takata director's notes from 2013, he explains that he shared 
his view that the range of a certain recall might be a ``violation of 
our moral obligation to protect the public.'' Let me repeat that. A 
``violation of our moral obligation to protect the public''--that came 
from a Takata director. Wow.
  The engineer raised these concerns with Takata's senior vice 
president of quality assurance, but the vice president failed to take 
action to address it.
  These new documents that we note in this report from the committee 
speak for themselves. Takata failed to prioritize the safety of its 
products, and as a result, nine people are dead and dozens were 
injured. And even after exploding Takata airbags killed these innocent 
people, company employees continued to manipulate safety testing data. 
This is not only inexcusable, it is reprehensible.
  We have these thousands of automobile dealers around the country who 
have sold vehicles with the Takata airbags. They cannot sell a new 
vehicle if that vehicle is under recall because of a Takata airbag. 
Under law, they cannot sell that new vehicle. Also, rental car 
companies that have more than 15 cars cannot rent cars if they are 
under recall. But used car dealers can sell used cars that have a 
defective Takata airbags in them that is under recall--without fixing 
it.
  I really feel for our automobile dealers. I really feel for our 
automobile dealers also because what in the world are they going to do 
with the customers now screaming ``Replace this airbag'' when, in fact, 
there are not enough replacement airbags? In fact, because the National 
Highway Transportation Safety Administration has allowed some of these 
replacements to go in with this ammonium nitrate, this is a horrendous 
situation.
  So I come to the floor today--this has been going on for over 2 
years. We brought this out in a hearing in the Senate Commerce, 
Science, and Transportation Committee. And today I urge Takata and 
NHTSA to do what should have been done long ago: Stop producing these 
ammonium nitrate airbags and get them out of people's vehicles. And by 
the way, give your automobile dealers some relief. And how about giving 
the American driving public, which is driving around with one of these 
things in their face, some consideration and put them first? Hopefully, 
we will see some more action on this.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
  Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may 
proceed for 15 minutes as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.