WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a full committee hearing today on Toyota’s Recalls and the Government Response.

**LINK TO VIDEO OF CHAIRMAN ROCKEFELLER’S MORNING REMARKS HERE**

**LINK TO VIDEO OF CHAIRMAN ROCKEFELLER’S AFTERNOON REMARKS HERE**

Witness List: 

10:00 A.M.

Panel I

The Honorable Raymond LaHood, Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation

The Honorable David Strickland, Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Panel II

Mr. Clarence Ditlow, Executive Director, Center for Auto Safety

2:30 P.M.

Panel III

Mr. Shinichi Sasaki, Executive Vice President, Toyota Motor Corporation

Mr. Takeshi Uchiyamada, Executive Vice President, Toyota Motor Corporation

Mr. Yoshimi Inaba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Toyota Motor North America, Inc.

Mr. Clarence Ditlow, Executive Director, Center for Auto Safety

Key Quotations from Today’s Hearing:

“I believe the way we respond to this serious situation will – and must – have a lasting impact on carmakers and their employees, on the federal agency charged with overseeing safety, and on the confidence of the public for years to come. I do intend to work on comprehensive legislation to get at all of these issues in a real way – we need to look at current law and ask if it is strong enough to prevent something like this from happening again. The American people deserve a top-to-bottom review, not just of past errors but of the road ahead. They deserve more than reassurances – they deserve full disclosure, accountability and solutions.”

Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV

“Transportation safety is the Department’s highest priority. We understand the level of concern about the safety of Toyota vehicles, particularly with regard to unintended acceleration…NHTSA has acted to ensure Toyota recalls on the issues related to unintended acceleration on which we have had evidence indicating the presence of a vehicle defect. We stand ready to ensure prompt action on any additional defects that we have reason to believe are present.”

The Honorable Raymond LaHood, Secretary, U.S. Department of Transportation 

“I want to be absolutely clear: As a result of our extensive testing, we do not believe sudden unintended acceleration because of a defect in our ETCS [Electronic Throttle Control System] has ever happened. However, we will continue to search for any event in which such a failure could occur.”

Mr. Takeshi Uchiyamada, Executive Vice President, Toyota Motor Corporation

“Toyota has rigorously tested the solutions for our recent recalls and we are confident that with the repairs our dealerships are making, Toyota vehicles are among the safest on the road today. However, as we look to the future, we need to ensure that we listen more closely to our customers’ voices, consider their concerns seriously and sincerely, and address them more quickly and aggressively.”

Mr. Shinichi Sasaki, Executive Vice President, Toyota Motor Corporation

“In recent months, we have not lived up to the high standards our customers and the public have come to expect from Toyota, despite all of our good faith efforts. It is clear to us that we did not listen as carefully as we should – or respond as quickly as we must – to our customers' concerns. As our President Akio Toyoda told members of Congress last week, we sincerely regret that our shortcomings have resulted in the issues associated with our recent recalls.”

Mr. Yoshimi Inaba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Toyota Motor North America, Inc.

“First and foremost, Toyota needs to install electronic brake override systems in all vehicles with electronic throttle control. Toyota must also agree to releasing all information submitted to NHTSA during the investigations and agree to conduct a fully public engineering investigation of its electronic controls with independent scientists and engineers with no ties to the auto industry.”

Mr. Clarence Ditlow, Executive Director, Center for Auto Safety

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