The company and the employees, including a former head of the examination section at its engineering headquarters' development department, are suspected of violating the Road Trucking Vehicle Law.

The company is reported to have been testing a large vehicle with a new type of engine on national highways and expressways in Kanagawa and Shizuoka prefectures toward the end of last year without properly reporting it to authorities, the sources said.

The company said in March it had conducted road tests on 74 vehicles from 1968 to last year, and that 104 accidents had taken place during the tests, resulting in injuries or damage to the Isuzu vehicles or to other vehicles and property.

The Japan Times Weekly: May 14, 2005
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