Japanese truckmaker Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp said Wednesday it would recall more than twice as many vehicles than previously announced over problems with faulty wheel hubs that led to a fatal accident.
The company, a subsidiary of US-German auto group DaimlerChrysler and Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors, said it would now recall about 112,000 vehicles in Japan, up from the 45,000 announced on March 11.
The recall also applies to several tens of thousands of vehicles exported mainly to Taiwan and China.
The cost of repairs was estimated at 6.5 billion yen (60.7 million dollars), more than double the previous estimate.
No impact on earnings was foreseen for the year to the end of March but the following year was expected to be "very difficult", a spokesman said. "We will do our best to explain this to our customers and clients," he said.
Mitsubishi Fuso also said its president would apologise in person to the family of the victim, which he had not done two weeks ago when the company said a string of accidents was only probably caused by a wheel hub fault.
"This recall is based on our findings that insufficient strength in the front hub may cause a crack near the root of the hub flange," the company said in a statement.
"President and CEO Wilfried Porth is planning to directly visit the family of the victim ... to offer our most sincere condolences ... as well as our heartfelt apologies," it said.
The fatal accident occurred in January 2002, when a 29-year-old woman was killed on a sidewalk after being struck by a wheel that came off a large trailer truck in Yokohama, south of Tokyo. The accident also injured her two young sons.
A transport ministry official said Wednesday it would continue to investigate the company for not filing its recall plans sooner so as to determine what it knew about the problems and when.
The government's top spokesman Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda sharply criticised the company.
"Look at the sequence of events; (the recall) is very late," he said at a regular news conference. "We will have to inspect the recall report carefully. Following that, if there were any infractions, we must deal with them strictly".