› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
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 may face more fines from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), according to Industry Week magazine. The country’s largest car manufacturer was ordered to pay a $16.4 million penalty after a lengthy Department of Transportation investigation found the carmaker did not disclose information timely enough about defects in some of its vehicles that caused the cars to race out of control. The sudden and unintended acceleration issue has been blamed for more than 50 U.S. deaths.
Toyota has sent a memo to its dealerships telling them to offer a complete pedal replacement to certain customers whose vehicles were recalled for the sticky accelerator defect. To receive the replacement pedal, customers must already have had their gas pedal modified under Toyota’s sticking accelerator pedal recall and they must express dissatisfaction with the repair.
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.
Toyota owners who have taken their vehicles to dealers for brake repairs following a massive recall say their cars are still accelerating suddenly and unintentionally. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says at least seven complaints were filed in the past two weeks by consumers who had their Toyotas repaired, but say their cars still ran out of control.
“Shame on you, Toyota, for being so greedy,” said a shaken Rhonda Smith of her horrifying runaway car incident four years ago. Smith was the first victim to testify in the Toyota hearings on Capital Hill on Feb. 23. She told the House panel how her Lexus ES350 suddenly took off as she was driving down the highway. At first she thought the problem was with the cruise control and pushed both feet on the brake, but nothing seemed to slow the car. “I prayed for God to help me,” she said. As her car shot down the road, she called her husband Eddie on her cell phone. He says listening to his wife’s desperate pleas for help was the “most terrifying” experience of his life. Smith said she finally threw her car into reverse and the nightmare ended.
Toyota Motor Sales, USA, has a lot of sucking up to do to the dealers that have made the company tops in automotive sales in the United States. First, dealers had to reassure their customers after Toyota issued two separate recalls over the past few months for issues involving sudden and unintended acceleration. Then last week, the company announced that it was recalling hundreds of thousands of its hybrids, the prized Prius and the luxury Lexus, due to problems with the automobile’s anti-lock braking system.
