We are keeping an eye on the hearings taking place this week on Capitol Hill before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce (Tuesday) and the House Oversight Committee (Wednesday). It is an exhausting experience to watch, never mind testifying! A re-cap and some impressions from yesterday:
Tuesday, Feb. 23 –
First hour taken up with 3-5 minute opening statements by members of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and selected members of the full committee on Energy and Commerce. Lots of posturing and formalities, little illumination or value. Panel 1 witnesses sworn in at noon.
Eddie and Rhonda Smith testified about her 2006 runaway experience on the highway in a new Lexus ES350 with 2,728 miles on it. A coherent and compelling tale that included her vehicle accelerating to 100 mph while she had both feet on the brake and tried putting the car in every gear, finally leaving it in Reverse, to no effect, until it spontaneously started to slow six miles later. Very unsatisfactory handling of their situation by Lexus and Toyota personnel, and NHTSA. (Toyota's Jim Lentz later said that he was embarrassed to hear all that.)
Sean Kane, Safety Research & Strategies Inc. – Kane is president and founder of a firm that provides research to attorneys, engineers, corporate and government. Obviously skilled in expert testimony and advocacy, as evidenced by his repeated use of key phrases with inflammatory wording. Some House representatives were irritated by his style, and I think it ultimately limited his effectiveness. Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) was the most friendly to Toyota throughout the hearing and he eventually went after Kane regarding the payments he gets from attorneys representing Toyota owners.
Dr. David Gilbert, professor, Southern Illinois University Carbondale – Added to the witness list at the last minute, Gilbert drew the most time during the lengthy Q&A (Panel 1 took 2 hours total). His report “Toyota Electronic Throttle Control Investigation” is available at the Safety Research & Strategies Inc. site. His key finding was that he was able to introduce a fault within the electronic system that should have been detected but that did not produce an error code, leading him to conclude that the diagnostic strategy of Toyota’s systems is too wide a window. He was careful to say that this did not prove a cause for sudden unintended acceleration, but showed it was possible that electronics problems are occurring but are not reported.
Rep. Steve Buyer again brought up the issue of payment to Dr. Gilbert by Safety Research & Strategies and suggested that this tainted his study. It was also brought out that Toyota’s outside technical expert firm Exponent had, since receiving Dr. Gilbert’s study the day before, duplicated his tests. It stated that what he had done to introduce the fault was not something that could occur in real world conditions and one of the congressmen characterized it as sabotage. Jim Lentz in his later testimony was very careful not to criticize Gilbert and to express interest in obtaining more information about his tests.
Panel 2 –
Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA was sworn in at 2:15 and spent about 2.5 hours responding to questions, to the extent that the congresspeople allowed him to. It was a no-win situation – they wouldn’t give him time to look in his notes for answers to factual questions (Rep. John Dingell, MI was the worst) and any time he tried to describe a new measure, the response was, “That’s nice but why didn’t you do it sooner?” Overall, he handled it extremely well, with great sincerity and appropriate humility. Some committee members expressed frustration that Lentz was not able to answer detailed questions on manufacturing and quality issues. The pressure on Toyota’s Japanese officials increased, since it became clear that decision-making on recalls remains in Japan.
Panel 3 –
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood was sworn in at 4:40 and gave his opening statement before the hearing was recessed until 5:30 so that representatives could go vote. His Q&A session went until 6:54 pm. He is before a different House committee today answering similar questions, with the same bluster and elevated voice volume, although the congresspeople definitely handle him with more deference, since he was formerly one of their own.