Europeans warned of Toyota pedals well before US
In issuing a “record $16.4 million fine on Toyota for failing to alert the U.S. government to the safety problems quickly enough, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood cited the warnings to the other countries. LaHood said Tuesday that Toyota made a "huge mistake" by not disclosing the safety problems sooner. (K. Thomas and L. Margasak, AP Washington, 4/7).
Documentation recently made public suggests that Toyota was aware of the accelerator problems long before U.S. regulators were made privy to them as European distributors were informed long before the U.S. As major concerns about sticking gas pedals in the U.S. were rising at the end of 2009, documents “show that weeks earlier, on Sept. 29, its European division issued technical information identifying a production improvement and repair procedure to address complaints by customers in those countries of sticking accelerator pedals, sudden rpm increase and/or sudden vehicle acceleration."
Although Toyota is still deciding whether to accept or contest the fine, the Japanese automaker has a long trek of legal battles ahead as it has been named in approximately 140 potential class action lawsuits and an additional 100 or so personal injury and wrongful death cases in federal courts. As a personal injury and automobile accident attorney in Chicago, this information leads me to question the honesty of Toyota for knowingly failing to disclose potential problems to the United States. Doing so at an earlier date could have saved many lives, thus a hefty fine is a just manifestation of the frustration the U.S. has with the delay.
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