Secretary Anthony R. Foxx

Remarks at Takata Press Conference

May 18, 2015 – Washington, DC

At USDOT, safety is our first task, and today we’re taking steps to make sure that every American car and truck is safer because it has air bags that work properly.

Over the last several months, airbags made by the world’s largest manufacturer – Takata – have come under question. The air bag inflators, we suspected, did not work correctly. And we believe that they have been responsible for at least five deaths in the United States.

But up until now, Takata has refused to acknowledge that their air bags are defective.

That changes today.

Today, I can announce: Takata has agreed to declare that air bag inflators are defective. It is recalling these inflators. And these recalls are nationwide.

Administrator Rosekind will delve into more details in a moment. But for now I will say: These defect notifications greatly expand the scope of the recalls already under way. Based on data from Takata’s defect filings, they will roughly double the number of affected vehicles in the United States, to nearly 34 million.

I want to thank Administrator Rosekind – and the entire NHTSA team – for their work on this issue. Takata has agreed to enter into a consent order with NHTSA.  It requires the company’s full cooperation with the agency going forward.

NHTSA is launching a legal process that will allow us to bring together auto manufacturers whose vehicles are affected – along with Takata and other parts suppliers. That way, they can organize this recall effort and get it done as quickly and effectively as possible.

NHTSA has also begun its own testing program which will make sure that the replacement air bag inflators are, in fact, safe.

This is a monumental effort. There is no doubt about that.

This recall involves 11 auto manufacturers, many different parts suppliers – not just Takata – and roughly double the number of vehicles built in the United States every year. It’s fair to say: This is probably the most complex consumer safety recall in U.S. history.

So we have a lot of work to do, especially with regard to why this happened in the first place.

Takata still has not identified the root cause of this defect. But we cannot let that delay us from taking action. Lives are at stake. It’s our job to protect them. And so that is what we are doing today.

The last thing I’ll say is: Automakers and manufacturers have a safety responsibility they must live up to. There are no excuses.

We used the authority we had to impose a daily fine on Takata for failing to cooperate with our investigation.

But the goal, at the end of the day, is not to collect money – it’s to improve safety. This is why we didn’t let up in our efforts to hold Takata accountable and to reach this point where more faulty airbags could be recalled.

And this is also why we’ve proposed, in our reauthorization bill, the GROW AMERICA Act, to not only raise the maximum fine we can impose from $35 million to $300 million – but to gain additional authority to help us force recalls. Our proposal would also help us meet the challenge of quickly identifying and fixing auto defects through recalls by more than doubling the size of NHTSA’s Office of Safety Defects and Investigations.

Because we know our work doesn’t here. We will continue working every day towards a safer auto industry.

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