Summary

NAME: JAP MITSUBISHI 060504N TAPE: EF04/0478 IN_TIME: 11:02:20:05 DURATION: 00:01:26:00 SOURCES: TV TOKYO/NIPPON TV DATELINE: Tokyo - 6 May 2004 RESTRICTIONS: SHOTLIST: NTV - 6 May 2004 1. Aerial shot of police walking into the headquarters of Mitsubishi Motors Corps. (MMC) and its group companies 2. Police walking in 3. Pan up of MMC headquarters TV Tokyo - 6 May 2004 4. Pan from MMC sign to police car going in 5. Police walking in 6. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) of Yoichiro Okazaki, chief executive and chairman of MMC: "I take it seriously. We will follow the procedure and give command accordingly." 7. Takashi Usami, former Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corporation chairman, who was vice president of Mitsubishi Motors at the time of the accident NTV - 2002 8. Mitsubishi Fuso truck that had the accident 9. Truck 10. Tracking shot of the camera following to the location where the tyre spun off 11. STILL of the victim of the accident, Shiho Okamoto NTV - Recent 12. Various of MMC, Wilfried Porth, President and CEO of Mitsubishi Fuso, paying a visit to the graveyard of the victim NTV - File 13. Various of the plant of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp STORYLINE: Police arrested seven former senior officials of Mitsubishi Motors Corporation on Thursday on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death and injury. They are also under suspicion of filing false reports on defective vehicle parts related to a fatal truck accident in Yokohama in 2002. The seven include Takashi Usami, 63, former chairman of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp., who was vice president of Mitsubishi Motors at the time of the accident, and Akio Hanawa, 63, a former Mitsubishi Motors managing director. Earlier on Thursday, police raided the offices of Mitsubishi's truckmaking affiliate. Investigators with empty boxes arrived in two police vans, filing into the headquarters of Mitsubishi Fuso on Thursday morning. The seven are suspected of trying to shirk responsibility for an accident in which a 29-year-old woman was killed when she was hit by a wheel that came off a passing Mitsubishi truck after a hub connecting the wheel to the axle broke. The truckmaker blamed poor maintenance in a report to industry regulators even though executives were aware that there were defects in the hubs of some of its vehicles, Kyodo News quoted investigative sources as saying. Mitsubishi Fuso was spun off from Mitsubishi Motors in January 2003, and the seven executives reportedly under investigation worked for the Japanese automaker at the time of the accident in January 2002. Police were also preparing to seek criminal charges against Mitsubishi Motors for allegedly failing to implement adequate safety measures, according to local media reports. Authorities are investigating dozens of wheel-separation accidents involving Mitsubishi trucks dating back more than a decade. More than two years after the fatal accident, Mitsubishi Fuso announced in March plans to recall 220,000 trucks after acknowledging that a design flaw could cause the wheel hubs to crack. The Tokyo-based automaker, which is 37 percent owned by DaimlerChrylser AG, was shaken by a scandal four years ago when it admitted that it had concealed owner complaints from industry regulators to avoid having to order a recall.