Toyota Floor Mat Sudden Accleration Lawsuit News

Toyota Defective Accelerator Pedal and Floormat Recall Lawsuit News

Toyota faces questions on safety issues

 

-LOS ANGELES TIMES

12/26/2009 - During a routine test on its Sienna minivan in April 2003, Toyota Motor Corp. engineers discovered that a plastic panel could come loose and cause the gas pedal to stick, potentially making the vehicle accelerate out of control.

The automaker redesigned the part and by that June every 2004 model year Sienna off the assembly line came with the new panel. Toyota did not notify tens of thousands of people who had already bought vans with the old panel, however.

It wasn't until U.S. safety officials opened an investigation last year that Toyota acknowledged in a letter to regulators that the part could come loose and "lead to unwanted or sudden acceleration."

In January, nearly six years after discovering the potential hazard, the automaker recalled 26,501 vans made with the old panel.

In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, Toyota said there was no defect in Sienna and that "a safety recall was not deemed necessary" when it discovered the problem in 2003. The company called the replacement part "an additional safety measure."

A peerless reputation for quality and safety helped Toyota become the world's largest automaker. But even as its sales have soared, the company has delayed recalls, kept a tight lid on disclosure of potential problems and attempted to blame human error in cases where owners claimed vehicle defects.

The automaker's handling of safety issues has come under scrutiny in recent months because of allegations of sudden acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles, which has led to some accidents and fatalities.

After Toyota announced its biggest-ever recall this fall to address the sudden acceleration problem, it insisted publicly that no defect existed, drawing a rare public rebuke from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which chastised the automaker for making "inaccurate and misleading statements."

Ex-Toyota lawyer sues

On top of that, a former Toyota lawyer who handled safety litigation has sued the automaker, accusing it of engaging in a "calculated conspiracy to prevent the disclosure of damaging evidence" as part of a scheme to cover up structural shortcomings. As a result, plaintiff attorneys are considering reopening dozens of product liability suits against Toyota.

Toyota has called the allegations of the attorney, Dimitrios Biller, "both misleading and inaccurate" and noted that he also is suing another former employer. The company said it has "acted appropriately in product liability cases and in all reporting to federal safety regulators."

In a written statement, Toyota said that it has strived to keep government officials and consumers informed about potential safety problems with its vehicles, which it says are tested to meet or exceed federal standards.

Toyota said that although it does not comment on individual cases, it "has resolved and will continue to resolve matters with litigants through confidential settlement when it is in both parties' interests to do so."

No buy-back policy

Toyota said it has no policy to repurchase vehicles from customers complaining about sudden acceleration, though its dealers may act on their own to "preserve good will."

Data 'proprietary'

Some motorists who have confronted safety issues claim that the automaker has hidden information from them.

In January, Jeffrey Pepski, a financial consultant in suburban Minneapolis, took his 2007 Lexus ES350 to the dealer after it accelerated out of control on a Twin Cities freeway, reaching 80 miles per hour.

Toyota sent an expert to examine the car Feb. 3 and download electronic data stored on the vehicle's computers. When Pepski asked for a copy of the data, he was refused. "They said it was proprietary," Pepski recalled.

He filed a defect petition with NHTSA, and the dealer allowed Pepski to trade in the sedan for a sport utility vehicle. The Lexus ES was not branded a lemon and was resold in Minnesota, records show.

How Toyota handles requests such has Pepski's has frustrated investigators and vehicle owners who want to get information contained on computers in their vehicles.

Nearly all new cars today contain an event data recorder, often called a black box, that can record several seconds of key information when accidents occur or in other circumstances.

According to Toyota, its black boxes can capture vehicle speed, engine speed, brake pedal application, accelerator pedal position, and seat belt usage among much else. That data, experts say, could be crucial to investigating causes of sudden acceleration.

Unlike manufacturers including General Motors and Ford, Toyota's data recorders are extremely difficult for non-Toyota personnel to read, said W.R. "Rusty" Haight, a black box expert who owns a collision investigation company.

Toyota says it has only one device in the U.S. that can read the data. An operating manual for the device, a copy of which was reviewed by the Times, indicates it takes two passwords to operate.

On its Web site, Toyota says that it won't honor EDR readout requests from private individuals or their attorneys because their device is a prototype.

A time to go public

On some safety issues, though, Toyota has had little choice but to go public.

Sudden acceleration did not become a national issue for the automaker until this fall, when it announced its largest-ever recall shortly after a 2009 Lexus ES accelerated out of control and crashed in San Diego County, killing an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer along with his wife, daughter and brother-in-law.

In a 5:30 a.m. conference call the day before Thanksgiving, Toyota detailed remedies to prevent acceleration problems it has blamed on gas pedals trapped under floor mats. Toyota will replace or modify pedals, replace floor mats, modify floor well padding and add new safety software to seven models, representing 4.26 million cars and trucks.

The campaign follows eight recalls in the U.S. over the past decade to fix problems that in the automaker's own words could cause sudden acceleration or faulty throttle system operation.

In the ongoing Sienna recall, Toyota is replacing a hard plastic trim panel over the center console. In its statement to the Times, the automaker said that pedal entrapment can only be caused in the event of a missing attachment clip, which might not be replaced after service work.

Toyota said it issued the recall voluntarily after a single complaint to NHTSA prompted an investigation by the agency. NHTSA officials did not respond to a written question about the recall and the agency's oversight of the matter.