Indictments
Mitsubishi! > News > Japan > Mitsubishi Motors > 2004 News > Arrests and Indictments
Fuso Truck Clutch Defect-related Death
July 2, 2004. Yokohama (Kyodo). (Kyodo, Japan Times) Former Mitsubibishi Motors President Katsuhiko Kawasoe, former director Yuzo Murata, Takashi Usami, former vice president and former chairman of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus, Tatsuro Nakagami, former executive director, were all charged with negligence resulting in a fatal accident in 2002 involving a truck built by the automaker. These four were arrested on June 10.
Accoding to the prosecutors, MMC was aware of the clutch defect in its trucks as early as 1996 but didn't issue a recall. During 2000, when another scandal had erupted at MMC, authorities ordered MMC to come clean but it didn't happen.
On October 19, 2002 a truck's drive shaft fell off while it was on a highway in Yamaguchi Prefecture, disabling the brake. The 9-ton truck passed through an expressway tollgate and slammed into a building, killing the 39-year-old driver.
Usami has already been charged with Road Trucking Vehicle Law violations and professional negligence resulting in death and injury in connection with a fatal accident in Yokohama in 2002. In the Yokohama incident, a 29-year-old woman, Shiho Okamoto, died after being struck down by a tire that had come off a Mitsubishi-made truck. She had been walking along a street with her two sons, who were also injured.