Volkswagen ‘has blood on its hands’ over rigged exhaust tests says top adviser

THE GOVERNMENT’S former chief scientific adviser has accused German car-makers of causing thousands of Britons’ deaths after rigging diesel exhaust tests.

Sir David King said Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler have “blood on their hands” over the experiments they undertook on monkeys and claimed that their decision to manipulate data on exhaust emissions had caused the deaths of large numbers of people in the UK.

In 2015 Volkswagen admitted to fitting cheat devices to their cars that made their engines appear less polluting.

Sir David, who held the government position until 2007, said their behaviour was “simply astonishing”.

Sir David told

“The number of early fatalities in Britain is really very, very large due to NOx (nitrogen oxide) air, with Governments across Europe encouraging diesel on the basis that the catalyst traps worked.

“These companies have blood on their hands – I say that without any doubt.”

Thomas Steg, one of Volkswagen’s most senior lobbyists, was suspended after taking responsibility for Volkswagen’s involvement in the tests furore. The statement said the company was “drawing the first consequences” as it investigates the activities of EUGT, the entity backed by Volkswagen and other car makers which commissioned the monkey experiment. The move follows a report in

that the nowdisbanded EUGT commissioned the test to show how Volkswagen’s diesel technology was succeeding in controlling emissions.

But the test was carried out with a vehicle rigged to cheat on emissions tests. The practice was exposed in 2015.