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Takata

Report: Takata secretly tested air bags, hid results

Chris Woodyard
USA TODAY
The logo of Japanese auto-parts supplier Takata

Auto parts supplier Takata secretly conducted tests on automotive air bags recovered from a junkyard and found they had the potential to crack in a way that could lead to a rupture and potentially harm passengers, yet the result was not reported to regulators, a news report says.

The 2004 tests came after Takata received a report that the inflator from one of its air bags had sprayed an Alabama driver with metal debris, reports The New York Times, based on what it says were two unnamed former employees who were involved with the tests. During the test, inflators in two of the tests cracked. The result persuaded the company's engineers to start searching for a possible fix.

About 7.78 million cars in the U.S. from a variety of manufacturers with Takata air bags are under recall in the U.S. because it is feared that their bags could injure passengers. At least two deaths are linked to shrapnel for air bags so far.

The secret tests came four years before Takata said in a regulatory filing that it has tested the air bags for flaws. Takata executives, the Times says, ordered lab techs to delete data about the secret tests and throw away the air bag inflators used in the tests.

"All the testing was hush-hush," one former veteran employee told the Times. "Then one day, it was, 'Pack it all up, shut the whole thing down.' It was not standard procedure."

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