Legal Information and Resources

Is Toyota’s position that it should just fix its gas pedals sufficient? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has already received ten (10) complaints of Sudden Unanticipated Acceleration (”SUA”) AFTER Toyota supposedly ‘fixed’ one million (1,000,000) recalled vehicles. If vehicles are still suddenly accelerating, then perhaps the “fix’ required is the far more expensive effort to fix the electronics.

I previously raised the point that Toyota may have been playing a shell game by distracting people with the argument that its mats caught the accelerator pedal, rather than there being an internal problem causing many of its models to have Sudden Unanticipated Acceleration (”SUA”) problems. Now comes news that an internal Toyota memo in 2007 boasts that it had saved $100 million dollars by limiting its recall to replacing floor mats in 55,000 vehicles as some sort of solution to the problem of SUA complaints being made. That is, even though the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) had over 2,000 complaints of SUA and 34 deaths had been blamed on SUA in Toyota vehicles, there may have been aggressive lobbying effort by Toyota to limit its recall. Indeed, the internal memo calls it a “win” for Toyota. Of course, limiting federal investigations is not a “win” for consumers or for anyone sharing the road with those Toyota models. NHTSA has been investigating Toyota SUA complaints for about 7 years now. To understand one possible explanation of why so many NHTSA investigations were closed with no further federal action being taken, see my earlier blog about Toyota hiring NHTSA regulators to work for Toyota and then assigning them the job of negotiating recalls with NHTSA.

The truth about the Toyota Sudden Unanticipated Acceleration (“SUA”) defect lies beneath the headlines. The issues include: the reason why Toyota did not solve the problem even though it was identified over two (2) years ago; why Toyota decided to distract the American public with claims that its loose mats moved; how Toyota’s use of “common parts” in its manufacturing facilities may end up identifying an internal electronic cause rather that the mechanical (“sticky pedal”) case which Toyota now claims is the culprit. (more…)

A recent question from a Locks Law blog reader, and answer by Locks attorney Jim Pettit:

Question: If someone is in a car accident, what would they need to look for to decide whether to sue the manufacturer of the vehicle and not just sue the driver who struck them? (more…)

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) inserted a pre-emption provision in a new rule governing seat belt safety on October 9, 2008. The final rule is known as the “designated seating position” rule. (more…)