Toyota president Akio Toyoda is to tell a US committee that he is 'deeply sorry' for accidents caused by safety problems with Toyota vehicles.
In testimony prepared for his highly anticipated appearance before the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform tomorrow, he detailed a set of reforms that would shift control of recall decisions away from the car maker's Japanese headquarters.
Toyoda also said a period of explosive growth may have weakened the company's internal controls.
'We pursued growth over the speed at which we were able to develop our people and our organisation, and we should sincerely be mindful of that,' he said in his written testimony.
Two days of congressional hearings on Toyota's safety crisis started today. Toyota's recall of more than six million vehicles in the US market in recent months was prompted in part by a fatal crash in a Lexus in August that killed an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer and three members of his family.
Toyoda apologised personally to the surviving family of Mark Saylor. The remarks marked the most personal and direct apology from Toyoda, who has appeared uncomfortable with the media spotlight and had initially resisted calls to testify before congressional investigators.
Toyoda, whose grandfather founded the Japanese car maker, said he was personally committed to making changes that would ensure Toyota maintained higher standards of quality.
He also detailed steps that would shift control on future recall decisions away from an engineering group at Toyota's headquarters. Critics have charged that the centralisation of control by engineers at the car maker's 'customer quality engineering' team in Japan contributed to its slow response to the crisis.
