YOSHIKAZU TSUNO
Newly obtained emails suggest data manipulation at embattled Japanese airbag maker Takata was more prevalent and brazen that previously thought. According to documents obtained by The New York Times, emails between Takata engineers in the U.S. and Japan contained phrases like “Happy Manipulating!!!” in reference to airbag-inflator safety test results, while another suggested that someone change the colors in a graphic “to divert attention” from the results and “to try to dress it up.” Two months ago, Honda Motor Co. fired the airbag supplier, citing testing data that had been “misrepresented and manipulated.” More than 20 million cars in the U.S. have been recalled in connection to the faulty airbags, which have been found to shoot shards of metal at occupants when they deploy and have been linked to eight deaths and more than 100 serious injuries. The Times says the emails were unsealed as part of a personal injury lawsuit against Takata.