The automotive industry has to close down one of its chapters the more turbid the last few years, the scandal Takata, which has become by a landslide in the greater campaign review of the History in this sector. Much remains to be soap opera, but it starts to lighten up in court.
Takata is a nightmare for road safety, because their air bags manufactured in the early years of the century they can be death traps in case of deployment. The more is your age the greater is the moisture and/or heat to which they are exposed, the worse. The mechanism pyrotechnic degrades and the inflation of the bags away with a reaction more violent than normal.
The japanese company is ready to sign an agreement with the Department of Justice (DoJ) of the united States, which supported the criminal action of the company. The package amounts to 1,000 million dollars, which are described below:
- 25 millions of dollars are in the concept of fine
- $ 125 million will go to compensate the victims
- $ 850 million will be used to indemnify the manufacturers affected
Takata also agree to be monitored for three years
But how severe is the crime of designing a few airbags that, with the passage of time, they can kill people? No, there is more dust under the carpet. Takata knew that their inflators of airbags with ammonium nitrate could be a danger, because it was discovered in routine tests of quality.
What would have been more logical, which is to admit the shit and produce a call to review, that did not happen. Takata managed the evidence to depart, and so to be able to say to their customers, the automobile manufacturers, that the airbags were in compliance with all quality requirements.
And then they began to jump airbags, especially in the united States, which produced serious injuries or death to people, not to have jumped in the airbag, it would have come down unscathed from the car. One of the cases, especially dramatic, was that of a student, Huma Hanif, who suffered wounds that bled out in seconds by a simple abollón of its Honda Civic 2002.
this was the car of Huma Hanif. Without airbags, it would have fallen out of the car without more than minor injuries
Three executives from Takata have been accused for falsifying such evidence quality: Shinichi Tanaka, Hideo Nakajima, and Tsuneo Chikaraishi; all were expelled in 2015. One thing is that the company admits their guilt, and quite another to do so for individual persons.
Takata would have to pay 1.000 million dollars in only 30 days
The plea agreement is a resource in the justice of the united States to reduce the costs of litigation and to achieve a lesser sentence. This agreement must be approved by a federal judge to be valid.
Takata have been doing things wrong since the year 2000, when it began to manipulate evidence in order to convince manufacturers that their airbags were safe. Some manufacturers have learned the lesson and will not return to count with the services of this provider. the announcement of The agreement was well received in the bag, with a rebound in the shares higher than the 16% in the parquet tokyo. The financial situation of Takata is critical.
Several manufacturers are affected: BMW, Hyundai, Honda, Audi, Mazda, Toyota…
A few figures to understand the scale of the case
Are affected 19 manufacturers, who have produced more than 42 million vehicles with inflators of airbag, Takata, a leading supplier of systems for automotive safety located in Japan. at least 70 million inflators are potentially defective (the number grows and grows) and can injure or kill those who are supposed to protect.
have been posted 16 fatalities in the world, of which 11 died in the united states, and except for one of them, all driving a Honda. Furthermore, we must consider 184 serious injuries in the U.S. by the release of shrapnel and internal components of the airbags are fired in an uncontrolled way.
Such is the number of inflators for airbags that Takata has to be replaced, that until the competition is producing on commission, as is the case of Autoliv. Takata runs a great risk of filing bankruptcy, not having the financial resources to pay for such production, fines, lawsuits… The only thing that can relieve the pressure on Takata, is that the car recipients get to the scrapyards by age, several thousands of units more than 15 years.
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