Takata hid bad airbag tests, former employees say

Takata Airbags Lead Toyota, Nissan To Recall 3 Million Cars
The airbag unit for the passenger seat of a Toyota Motor Corp. vehicle is seen at the company's showroom in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, April 11, 2013. Takata Corp. faces its biggest recall crisis in almost two decades after defective airbag inflators led Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. to call back more than 3 million vehicles. Photographer: Koichi Kamoshida/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Photograph by Koixhi Kamoshida — Bloomberg/Getty Images

If there’s one part of your car you want to function perfectly, it’s probably the airbags. After all, they can save your life if another part messes up.

The New York Times, though, is reporting that the airbags manufactured by Japanese company Takata don’t not work, and that the company knew about the malfunctions for a decade and did not fix the problem.

Two former employees at the company told the newspaper that Takata had retrieved 50 airbags from scrapyards to perform tests on. Instead of reporting the results, though, executives had employees ignore and delete the findings, the paper said.

The alleged tests were performed in secret, after work hours, in Takata’s American headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich., in the summer of 2004, the employees told the Times.

Takata’s shares are tanking following the newspaper’s report.

Takata first reported problems with the airbags in 2008, according to the Times.

Recalls have been made for 14 million cars worldwide because of problems with the airbags, and 4 deaths have been reported.