A former Takata Corp. engineer has told a U.S. congressional committee he’s willing to testify that he warned of deadly consequences before the company chose a design for airbags that were later recalled due to lethal flaws.Mark Lillie, who left the Japanese auto-parts maker in 1999, said his departure was tied to Takata’s disregard of his warnings against using the chemical compound ammonium nitrate to inflate its airbags. More than 24 million cars with Takata inflators have since been recalled worldwide because the devices can deploy with too much force, causing them to rupture and shoot metal fragments at motorists.
“I knew that ultimately there were going to be catastrophic failures,” Lillie said in a phone interview. “I didn’t want my name associated with it.”
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