Congressional Investigation of Toyota’s Actions Coming
The first complaints about sudden, unintended acceleration were received by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 2004. Now, in 2010, Toyota has issued an extensive recall involving eight of its vehicle models and millions of individual cars. Now, in 2010, Toyota is working on a remedy.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee has announced an investigation into the Toyota sudden-acceleration problem and why it took so long for the problem to be addressed. The Committee has scheduled a hearing on the issue for February 25th.
According to the Committee, sudden, unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles has caused 19 deaths in the last decade—nearly twice as many such deaths as there have been in all other automakers’ cars combined.
While Toyota is claiming credit for its voluntary recall and stop sale order on affects models, NHTSA officials actually pressured Toyota week to stop selling these models because Toyota still didn’t have an approved solution for the accelerator problem. And in fact, the law requires the company to stop sales of products that are under a recall order.
Now, Toyota says that it will cooperate fully with the congressional investigation. Let’s hope that’s true, because consumers deserve to know what Toyota knew and when and whether the company responded appropriately.
Here’s what we know of the timeline so far:
2004
NHTSA began to receive complaints about runaway Toyota vehicles;
2007
NHTSA issued a "consumer advisory" regarding some Lexus and Toyota models, cautioning them to check “all-weather” floor mats and ensure that they are property secured before driving;
Toyota announced a recall involving floor mats that could slip forward and trap the gas pedal, causing unintended and uncontrollable acceleration.
2009
NHTSA issued another advisory warning of conditions that could cause some Toyota and Lexus vehicles to have their accelerator petals stick with the throttle open, leading to unintended and uncontrollable acceleration. It urged owners of some models to remove driver side floor mats.
Toyota issued a similar advisory and, in September, issued a recall involving 4.2 million vehicles, advising owners of certain Toyota model vehicles to remove driver-side floor mats and not replace them with any other floor mats.
2010
On January 21, Toyota issued a formal recall involving 2.3 million vehicles "to correct sticking accelerator pedals," separate from the ongoing recall concerning the risk of floor mats slipping under the accelerator pedals. Approximately 1.7 million cars were included in both recalls. Shortly thereafter, Toyota expanded the accelerator pedal recall to 1.1 million additional cars and issued the stop sale order—instructing dealerships not to see any car models included in the recall.
While uncontrollable acceleration among cars included in the recall is a rare occurrence, it is important that you understand the risk and recognize the signs of immediate danger, and it is important that you understand your legal rights in their situation.
Please contact us for a free, confidential consultation and learn more about your legal rights.
