House committee invites Toyota president to testify at hearing about recalls next week

House committee asks Toyota president to testify

WASHINGTON — The chairman of a House panel investigating Toyota’s massive recalls urged the company’s president Thursday to testify next week as the government opened a fresh investigation into Corolla compacts over potential steering problems.

“The public is unsure as to what exactly the problem is, whether it is safe to drive their cars, or what they should do about it,” Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., wrote to Akio Toyoda in the wake of safety questions involving gas pedals, floor sets and brakes on various Toyota products.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, asked whether the president had an opinion on whether Toyoda should testify, said, “The administration hopes Toyota would do all it can to rectify this ‘dangerous situation.’”

“Everybody, I think, is rightly concerned about the recalls that have happened,” Gibbs told reporters traveling with Obama aboard Air Force One.

Toyoda, the grandson of the Japanese automaker’s founder, had said previously that he did not plan to attend a series of hearings scheduled to start on Capitol Hill next week. But he had told reporters in Japan earlier that he would consider appearing if invited.

Towns, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote Toyoda that the committee wants him to “clarify” how the car manufacturer is addressing a widening recall crisis. The controversy over safety issues has burgeoned over the past four months with the recall of roughly 8.5 million vehicles.

Also Thursday, the Transportation Department formally opened a preliminary investigation into 487,000 Toyota Corolla and Corolla Matrix compacts from the 2009-2010 model years over concerns about steering problems at highway speeds. The government has received 168 complaints and reports of 11 injuries and eight crashes on the Corolla and Matrix compacts with electric power steering.

The Corolla investigation was expected after Toyota said it was looking into complaints of power steering difficulties with the vehicle and considering a recall as one option.

Reports of deaths in the U.S. connected to sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles have surged in recent weeks, with the toll of deaths allegedly attributed to the problem reaching 34 since 2000, according to new consumer data gathered by the government.

Toyota, the world’s No. 1 automaker, did not immediately say whether the executive would testify. Josephine Cooper, Toyota’s group vice president for public policy and government and industry affairs, said the company was “giving it every consideration and will give an answer just as quickly as we can.”

Invitations to congressional hearings are rarely rejected by those asked to appear. The committee’s top Republican, Rep. Darrell Issa of California, has urged Toyoda to meet with lawmakers and has said that if necessary, the committee should compel the executive’s testimony by subpoena.

In a separate move, the Oversight Committee subpoenaed Toyota documents from Dimitrios Biller, a former counsel for Toyota’s U.S. operations from 2003-2007. The committee said it was seeking documents related to motor vehicle safety, the company’s handling of defects and related litigation.

In Japan and in the United States, Toyota Motor Corp. has been criticized for being too slow to respond to the recall crisis and the company’s top executive has been accused of being largely invisible as the recalls escalated. But he has held three news conferences in recent weeks, apologized repeatedly for the recalls and promised reforms.

Toyota has said it will create an outside review of company operations, do a better job of responding to customer complaints and improve communication with federal officials. Toyoda has said he plans to travel to the U.S. soon to meet with workers and dealers but the company has not yet released his schedule.

Cooper said the company had provided about 50,000 pages of documents to Congress and was continuing to answer questions from staff members. Technicians from a Toyota training center in Maryland have been demonstrating to House aides the company’s fix for floor mat entrapment and sticky accelerator pedals.

The House committee invitation could bring another embattled auto executive to Congress, more than a year after the leaders of General Motors, Chrysler and Ford sought support for the U.S. auto industry and were scolded for traveling to the hearings in private jets. About a decade ago, the leaders of Ford and tire maker Bridgestone/Firestone were grilled by Congress after crashes involving exploding tires led to more than 250 traffic deaths.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean at the Yale School of Management, said Toyoda should “absolutely” testify before Congress because it would give the company a prime opportunity to take responsibility for the problems. “He has to be extremely well-prepared to take responsibility. He should take the full force of the most hostile criticisms he gets and welcome them,” Sonnenfeld said.

Toyoda’s appearance before Congress would raise the profile of the Feb. 24 Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing. Yoshimi Inaba, chairman and chief executive of Toyota Motor North America, already is scheduled to appear at the session, along with top U.S. transportation officials.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee moved its scheduled hearing up to Feb. 23, one day ahead of the Oversight Committee meeting. The energy panel has invited Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, and David Strickland, the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, to testify. A Senate hearing is planned for March 2.

The auto executives will face scrutiny in the U.S., where the Transportation Department has demanded documents related to its recalls. The department wants to know how long the automaker knew of safety defects before taking action.