雙語財經新聞 第14期:豐田召回汽車不能得到全部解決
The president of Toyota’s U.S. operations acknowledged to skeptical lawmakers1 that the company’s recalls of millions of its cars may “not totally” solve the problem of sudden and dangerous acceleration.
“We are vigilant2 and we continue to look for potential causes,M Toyota’s James Lentz told a congressional panel. However, he repeated his company’s position that unexpected acceleration in some of the company’s most popular cars and trucks was caused by one of two problems — misplaced floor mats and sticking accelerator pedals.
豐田的詹姆斯倫茨對國會小組稱，“這次事件爲我們敲響了警鐘,我們會繼續 排查潛在的原因。”然而，他卻一再強調豐田公司的立場：在豐田的幾種主打轎車和 卡車中存在的突然加速問題是由以下原因之一引起一~~地毯錯位和加速器踏板卡 住。He insisted electronic systems connected to the gas pedal and fuel line did not contribute to the problem, drawing sharp criticism from lawmakers who said such a possibility should be further explored — and from a tearful woman driver who could not stop her runaway Lexus.
他堅持認爲,連接油門踏板和輸油管的電子系統不是弓I發問題的原因。而議員 們中還有一位含着淚的，因故障而停不住她那雷克薩斯的受害女士與之針鋒相對，
認爲可能性還須進一步排查。
“Shame on you, Toyota,” Rhonda Smith, said at a congressional hearing. Then she added a second “shame on you” directed at federal3 highway safety regulators.“豐田真可恥”，朗達史密斯 在國會聽證會上說。接着，她又對 聯邦公路安全監管局說了一句， “你們真可恥。”
Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton cautioned his colleagues early in the hearing against conducting a “witch hunt” and said “We don’t want to just assume automatically that Toyota has done something wrong and has tried to cover it up4.” But midway through Lentz’s testimony, Barton said of Toyota’s investigation of the problems: wln my opinion, it*s a sham.”得克薩斯州共和黨衆議員 巴頓告誡他的同事在聽證會上不 要對豐田進行“迫害”。他說，“我 們並不想想當然地認爲是豐田做錯了事,並應該進行彌補。”但是聽蘭茨說道一半，巴頓就對豐田的這次問題調查發 表了自己的看法：這是個騙局o
Lentz said the company had not completely ruled out an electronics malfunction and was still investigating causes of the sudden acceleration. Still, “We have not found a malfunctionw in the electronics of any of the cars at issue, he said.蘭茨說，豐田還在調查引發突然加速的原因，並不排除電子設備故障的可能 性。但是，他說，“在召回的車子裏,我們沒有發現任何電子設備故障。”
As to Smith’s harrowing story, “I’m embarrassed for what happened,” Lentz said. “I want her and her husband to feel safe about driving our products.”對於發生在史密斯女士身上的悲劇，“對所發生的事我感到很不好意思”蘭茨 說，“我希望他們夫婦在開我們的車子的時候能有安全感。”
At one point in more than two hours of testimony5 Lentz was asked by Rep. Eliot Engel, whether there were any new bombshells* to come.蘭茨在聽證會上講了 2個多小時，期間，衆議員埃利奧特恩格爾曾置疑，豐田會 不會還有什麼出人意料的事發生。
“God, I hope there aren’t any more,” he said, while apologizing anew for the problems. “We stubbed our toe.”“天啊，我希望不會再發生了。”說着，他又做了道歉。“我們已經夠受的了。”
Three congressional panels are investigating Toyota，s problems, which affect a huge number of Americans. Toyota has recalled some 8.5 million vehicles worldwide - more than 6 million in the United States — since last fall because of unintended acceleration problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius hybrid. It is also investigating steering concerns in Corollas. People with Toyotas have complained of their vehicles speeding out of control despite efforts to slow down, sometimes resulting in deadly crashes. The government has received complaints of 34 deaths linked to sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles since 2000.很多美國人是這次召回事件的受害者，三個國會小組現正調査引發問題的原 因。從去年秋天，普銳斯的多個車型因突然加速和剎車問題被召回起，豐田在全球 範圍內大約召回了850萬輛車——其中有600多萬輛來自美國。該小組也在調査花 冠的轉向問題。人們紛紛向豐田抱怨他們的車輛失控，剎不住車，有時甚至撞出了 人命。從2000年起，美國政府已經接到了34例與豐田突然加速問題相關的死亡投訴。
