Honda engineer retracts own claim

His email was disclosed in a statement as part of Honda defence in a Florida class-action suit

Honda Motor Co on Friday released a 2013 email in which one of its engineers suggested that he knew some hidden truth about “the root cause” of Takata Corp air bag failures, but the engineer later said he was mistaken.

The engineer’s email was disclosed in a statement from Honda as part of its defence in a class-action suit in Florida.

The inflators can explode with excessive force, launching metal shrapnel at passengers. This prompted the automotive industry’s largest ever safety recall and have been linked to at least 16 deaths. Nine of the 11 Honda did not name the engineer. But it said he was still employed by the company and that while it had no objection to the engineer testifying in the Florida case he had declined to do so.

Honda also reiterated its position that it did not conceal knowledge of Takata defects, but instead was itself a victim of deception by Takata officials. US deaths have been reported in 2001-2003 model Honda and Acura vehicles The engineer’s July 18, 2013 email, originally written in Japanese and translated by Honda, is part of an exchange with a colleague.

“I am a witness in the dark who knows the truth about Takata’s inflator recall,” the engineer wrote in his email. “If I say something to NHTSA [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration], it will cause a complete reversal in the auto industry which adopted Takata inflators,” added the engineer.

In a sworn affidavit dated June 1, the engineer acknowledged he had been mistaken.

When he wrote email to his colleague, he was referring to an October 16, 1999 event in which a prototype Takata air bag inflator ruptured, the engineer stated. Based on later findings by the NHTSA, “I now understand that I was incorrect and the root cause of the field events is not related to the root cause of the October 1999 rupture,” he said.