Toyota’s Top Test Driver Naruse Killed in Car Crash in Germany

June 24 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp.’s chief test driver, Hiromu Naruse, was killed in a car accident yesterday in Germany, the world’s largest automaker said.

Naruse, 67, died following the accident near a test track, the New York Times reported yesterday, citing the German newspaper Rhein-Zeitung. A Bayerische Motoren Werke AG vehicle driven by another test driver was involved in the accident, the cause of which is still unclear, according to the report.

“We are surprised by the sudden sad news,” Mieko Iwasaki, a Tokyo-based spokeswoman for Toyota, said by phone today. “We express our heartfelt sympathy to people who were in the accident.” Iwasaki declined to comment on the details of the accident pending an investigation.
Naruse joined the Toyota City, Japan-based carmaker in 1963 and was involved in developing sports cars including the 2000GT and Lexus LFA, according to the Times report.

Source;
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-24/toyota-s-top-test-driver-naruse-killed-in-car-crash-in-germany.html