Kanagawa Prefectural Police searched Mitsubishi Motors Corp.'s headquarters in Tokyo and other related locations Friday over a January 2002 accident in Yokohama in which a woman was killed and her two sons injured by a wheel that came off a Mitsubishi-built semi-trailer.

Thirty-three other incidents involving wheels detaching from large Mitsubishi-made vehicles had been reported between June 1992 and the date of the accident, Jan. 10, 2002, according to an investigation.

Police suspect professional negligence on the part of Mitsubishi, which is roughly one-third owned by DaimlerChrysler AG. They allege that senior officials at the automaker failed to notify users or take proper remedial steps despite the relative frequency of these incidents.

Mitsubishi said 56 wheel detachments involving its vehicles had occurred as of the end of September. According to the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry, no such incidents occurred on large vehicles made by other automakers.