› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
A potential power steering flaw that can cause steering difficulty is behind the global recall of 106,000 Toyota Prius cars, including about 52,000 in the United States. The recall affects model-year 2001-03 Priuses only. Toyota announced the recall on Wednesday.
When David Strickland took over the reigns of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in early January, he assumed his focus would be the finalizing of landmark fuel economy and tailpipe emissions regulations with the Environmental Protection Agency. What he didn’t anticipate was spending so much time reviewing the safety record of what was once the country’s most reliable car manufacturer.
Toyota has launched an investigation into a new report of sudden unintended acceleration involving a 2009 Camry. The car’s driver, Myrna Marseilles, 76, of Wisconsin, said that she was parking her car at the YMCA in Sheboygan Falls, Wis. when the car suddenly accelerated forward and crashed into a wall.
Quality Control Systems, a statistical analysis and research firm based in Crownsville, Maryland, has been publishing new complaints of sudden, unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles as they are received by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agency has taken a special interest in sudden acceleration incidents that occur after the vehicles involved have been “repaired” under one or more of the safety recalls.
Toyota’s sudden acceleration problem has been splashed all over the news for months, leaving many drivers worried that their vehicles may one day race out of control without warning. Recently, much attention has been focused on the Prius, thanks to a growing number of incidents — some real and others apparently false – of the popular hybrids racing out of control. To help drivers who may one day find themselves behind the wheel of a runaway Prius, Toyota issued a press release on March 12 outlining the steps to take to bring the vehicle to a stop.
Glenda Whitfield says she tried to stop her 2007 Toyota Camry by mashing her foot on the brake pedal, but the car just kept accelerating. The vehicle didn’t stop until it had driven through a plate glass window of a Lee County, Ga., salon.
Whitfield’s story is frightening, but what’s more disturbing is that stories of sudden and unintended acceleration in some Toyota and Lexus vehicles are making headlines since the major car maker announced a recall of more than 8.5 million Toyota vehicles worldwide. The recall is to replace and modify brake pedals and override software to automatically reduce the engine to idle when both the brake and the accelerator are depressed.
While Toyota Corollas have the potential to accelerate suddenly and unintentionally, now there is mounting concern that they may also do the opposite: stall out while in motion.
In the quest to discover the cause of sudden, unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles, some scientists are looking to the sun. Subatomic particles bursting forth from our sun and other stars occasionally make it through the earth’s atmosphere, propelled by cosmic blast waves to the earth’s surface, where they can sometimes wreak havoc on our terrestrial electronic systems.
When Toyota’s former president Katsuaki Watanabe met with American investors for the first time, he bragged about the accomplishments he made in his three short months with the company. Assuming the reigns of the world’s second-largest car company (GM was number one at the time), Watanabe wanted to be the leader who made Toyota number one, and he succeeded.
Another Toyota Prius that had already been serviced under the floor mat recall accelerated suddenly Wednesday when its owner, a 56-year-old New York housekeeper, was leaving a driveway.
