According to media reports, Toyota documents indicate that the company was aware of declining safety, and thus potential personal injury, issues in 2006.
As reported by the Detroit News, internal Toyota documents presented to Congress, former Toyota North America chief Jim Press actually warned Toyota executives of declining safety and quality issues back in 2006. Mr. Press in an internal presentation called for the company to strengthen its relationship with NHTSA and related organizations.
Mr. Press also urged Toyota officials in Japan to “…support with timely, reasonable requests to investigations…” and to “…consider image impact of technical responses…” in regards to safety and quality issues. Press also warned the company that as recalls due to product defect issues increased, customer loyalty would suffer.
There are many critics of Toyota, including a former in house counsel that is now suing Toyota, who have argued for quite some time that Toyota has been deaf to consumer complaints, safety and potential personal injury or product liability issues, and stubbornly inept with an appropriate response to the multitude of product liability issues currently facing the company. Unfortunately, reports like the one cited above only add fuel to that fire.
For the health of the company, the industry as a whole, and for the sake of personal injury victims and potential injury victims Toyota needs to address these issues in a more open, honest and straightforward manner.
