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Drivers blamed for unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles
by Sophie Anderson - July 14, 2010 - comments
Government investigators and Toyota Motor Corp. have reportedly found that driver error, and not sudden unintended acceleration, may have caused dozens of accidents involving Toyota vehicles.
Toyota Motor Corp said investigation of nearly 2,000 cases of unintended acceleration has revealed that there was no problem with the electronic throttle system of the vehicle; rather it is the driver who is to be blamed for the error.
The announcement from the top automaker comes after a Wall Street Journal report revealed that initial results of the U.S. government's scrutiny of data recorders from Toyota vehicles hinted that some cases of sudden acceleration occurred due to the driver’s fault.
Two separate investigations blame drivers
The Wednesday report in the journal had suggested that many drivers erroneously hit the gas pedal instead of the brake.
"The early results suggest that some drivers who said their Toyotas and Lexuses surged out of control were mistakenly flooring the accelerator when they intended to jam on the brakes," the report said.
"I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it. . . . I remember my father saying in his instance that he had his foot on the brake as hard as he could and it was still going, so I don’t buy that argument." -- Jack Boddaert, whose father’s Lexus LS 400 raced ahead on its own
The report, however, "found that throttles were wide open and brakes not engaged on Toyotas involved in accidents blamed on sudden acceleration."
The Department of Transportation, however, did not confirm report published in the Wall Street Journal.
Toyota is also over and done with the acceleration issue and has reported that the "pedal misapplication" was the cause of unwanted speeding.
The Japanese automaker though acknowledged that it had trouble with ill-fitting floor mats that could ensnare badly designed gas pedals.
The Tokyo based company has also confessed that the gas pedals in some vehicles can stick open.
Customers not convinced
Toyota had pulled around 10 million vehicles in a series of recalls worldwide last year, primarily due to acceleration problems.
Eighty Nine crash deaths associated with unintended acceleration in Toyota cars have been reported since 2000.
Toyota is staring in the face of a potential civil liability which is expected to be to the tune of $10 billion arising out of complaints of runaway cars and trucks.
The entire saga has dented Toyota’s reputation big time. It now transpires that the quality control systems are not to be blamed for the unintended acceleration episodes.
Car owners refuse to buy Toyota’s argument
"I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it. . . . I remember my father saying in his instance that he had his foot on the brake as hard as he could and it was still going, so I don’t buy that argument," said Jack Boddaert, whose father’s Lexus LS 400 raced ahead on its own.
"There are too many people complaining about sudden acceleration for everybody to be making the same mistake," Boddaert added.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will now rope in a sovereign scientific panel, which will examine the matter independently.