Class action suit filed against Toyota over sudden acceleration claims
Following a statement from the DOT and NHTSA asserting that the unintended acceleration issue potentially involving millions of Toyota vehicles is "not closed," McCuneWright, LLP, a law firm in Southern California, has filed a national class action lawsuit on behalf of all Toyota and Lexus owners that claim to have experienced this phenomenon. Representing the class will be Los Angeles County residents Seong Bae Choi (owner of a 2004 Camry) and Chris Chan Park (owner of a 2008 FJ Cruiser).
According to the suit, Toyota has known about reports of unintended acceleration for years and has received over 2,000 such complaints. Citing statistics from Safety Research & Strategies, Inc., the lawsuit alleges that there have been 16 fatalities and 243 injuries from Toyota and Lexus crashes attributed to runaway vehicles. Toyota attributes these accidents to improperly installed or incorrect floormats that prevent the accelerator pedal from returning to its idle position.
Wright, though, said in a statement, "[N]either driver error nor floormats can explain away many other frightening instances of runaway Toyotas. Until the company acknowledges the real problem and fixes it, we worry that other preventable injuries and deaths will occur." Hit the jump for the official press release from McCuneWright.
[Source: McCuneWright, LLP]
PRESS RELEASE
Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Toyota to Correct Sudden Acceleration
REDLANDS, Calif., Nov. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The law firm of McCuneWright, LLP, filed a national class action lawsuit yesterday against Toyota Motor Corporation on behalf of Toyota and Lexus owners who have experienced incidents of sudden unintended acceleration.
Los Angeles County residents Seong Bae Choi, the owner of a 2004 Camry and Chris Chan Park, who owns a 2008 FJ Cruiser, will represent the class. Both have experienced multiple instances of sudden unintended acceleration in their respective vehicles, Choi and Park are also among the thousands of Toyota and Lexus owners who have experienced incidents of sudden unintended acceleration while driving their vehicles, and among the millions who are potentially affected by this dangerous defect.
The crash in Santee that claimed four lives in August raised the profile of the issue with the public, Toyota, and federal regulators. California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor was at the wheel of a Lexus ES 350 sedan on Highway 125, when the vehicle inexplicably accelerated to speeds exceeding 100 mph. According to a 911 call of the incident, Saylor was unable to stop the Lexus before it crashed and burst into flames, killing him, his wife, daughter and brother-in-law.
This, however, is not the only fatal crash resulting from sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota and Lexus models. Sean Kane, president of Safety Research & Strategies, Inc., has reported at least 16 fatalities and 243 injuries in crashes involving Toyotas that have been attributed to sudden unintended acceleration. In total, there have been more than 2,000 complaints of sudden unintended acceleration in these vehicles, culled from litigation and consumer-reported complaints to the automaker and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Toyota has tried to lay all the blame on floor mats, launching a recall last month affecting approximately four million Toyota and Lexus vehicles. But the evidence suggests that the causes of these uncontrolled acceleration events are likely more complex, involving computer, electronic, and mechanical systems.
"For years, Toyota Motor Corporation has dismissed complaints of sudden acceleration as being the driver's fault," said McCuneWright attorney, David Wright. "But neither driver error nor floor mats can explain away many other frightening instances of runaway Toyotas. Until the company acknowledges the real problem and fixes it, we worry that other preventable injuries and deaths will occur."
Toyota's first response should be immediate changes to their control systems, so drivers can safely stop a sudden unintended acceleration event, Wright said. Toyota's current design does not allow drivers to easily put the vehicle in neutral, apply the brakes, or just turn off the ignition. NHTSA recently highlighted this problem in a Vehicle Research & Test Center report. It noted that Toyota and Lexus drivers could be stymied in an emergency situation because:
* the ignition button on vehicles with a keyless ignition system must be depressed continuously for three seconds when the vehicle is moving before it will turn off the engine;
* the neutral gear position is difficult to find because it requires the driver to move the shifter both laterally and vertically; and
* when the throttle is in the open position it requires a brake pedal force of 150 pounds to stop the vehicle, five times more than the 30 pounds required when the vehicle is operating normally.
In addition, Toyota vehicles are not equipped with a brake-to-idle failsafe, which many other manufacturers already incorporate in their designs. This failsafe brings the engine to idle when both the throttle is in the open position at the same time the brake pedal is being depressed.
"We think this lawsuit is necessary to save lives," Wright said. "Along with other individual lawsuits, the press, consumer groups, and the government, it is our goal to force Toyota to make these changes."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Blackbird 9:07AM (11/09/2009)
Well this sounds familiar. Remember Audi?
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Nicolas 9:32AM (11/09/2009)
Toyota won't suffer the same stigma, irc Audi was nearly driven out of the North American market by the few people who couldn't figure out the pedal alignment.
It may also help that while culturally the German maker insisted everything was fine, the Japanese one will likely be more apologetic about the situation.
Aeromax 9:35AM (11/09/2009)
Haven't there been enough years since the Audi incident that automakers have learned not to put the gas and brake pedals too close together? That would be hilarious if that were the problem- both for Toyota's design, and the fact that people are still stepping on the wrong pedal.
Tourian 9:55AM (11/09/2009)
Putting the pedals close together in sporting cars is to make it possible for "heel and toe" moves. I doubt that is what is going on with these Toyotas if it isn't just driver error. It may have something to do with drive by wire and their control modules. I had no idea 16 deaths could be linked to it.
zamafir 11:22AM (11/09/2009)
@Tourian - correct. Toyota's done a fair amount of fail in this situation. A drive by wire system that doesn't impede gas when both gas and brake are pressed? sounds like a recipe for disaster. Well that and all the other odd design elements (cheap pedal design, etc etc) which seem to help the swiss cheese align.
Farmboy 12:05PM (11/09/2009)
@Nicholas. Apologetic? You're talking about the same company who was said to have lied and mislead the NHTSA? You really are comical.
daleam 1:27PM (11/09/2009)
Apologetic? The same company that forced 3.5 MILLION customers into class action suit over engine sludge, finally settling but never admitting responsibility?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
MKIV 2:15PM (11/09/2009)
Reading some of the comments, it seems that most are convinced, albeit with no evidence, that these issues are caused by a fault of the electronics. Regardless of the 6 investigations conducted by NHTSA that showed no such issue or was no able to duplicate the problem.
Didn't we blame McDonalds for us being fat? Personal responsibility is something that is totally foreign to most in this country. Why should it be any different in this case.
My point is that an independent government agency was unable to duplicate the issue with multiple tests yet most are convinced that it is something that is yet to be duplicated outside of the floor mat getting stuck under the pedal.
TobyJC 2:55PM (11/09/2009)
Wow both lawyers have "experienced multiple instances of sudden unintended acceleration in their respective vehicles".
you would think it would be easy for them to prove.
DD 10:27AM (11/09/2009)
Would be nice if News channels cover this. Just to show nobady is perfect even Toyota.
Wait "...16 fatalities and 243 injuries from Toyota and Lexus crashes attributed to runaway vehicles. " that should be criminal. Just a thought
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jv2k 11:37AM (11/09/2009)
It should be criminal that people who don't know what to do when their acceleration pedal gets caught under a rug are allowed to drive.
MKIV 2:01PM (11/09/2009)
Didn't NHTSA do 6 separate tests in that many years and yet to find a fault with the electronics?
Driving talent of US populous is not the greatest. I would go as far as saying it's pretty poor.
I’m still saying it’s driver error more so than the fault of the electronics.
Level 2:43PM (11/09/2009)
"Didn't NHTSA do 6 separate tests in that many years and yet to find a fault with the electronics?"
Bingo that's the whole point. Could you really get conclusive results by doing merely 6 test in the amount of years??????
RWD 5:47PM (11/09/2009)
@jv2k - That's what people keep saying and yes, it's not rocket science to know what to do if your accelerator gets stuck. But how much time are you assuming these people had to react? I'm sure in the majority of these cases they had plenty of time to think to jam on the brakes, shift into neutral, or try to turn the car off. But it's unfair to assume that all of these people were just sitting there for 10 seconds having a "duh" moment.
This kind of problem would make the most difference (the fatalities for example) in a split second situation. Coming up to a 30 mph curve in the rain... You take your foot off the gas to coast through but instead you quickly gain enough speed to plow wide off the edge of the turn. And all you had enough time to think was, "what the...?". Or that same situation with enough time to think to jam on the brakes, even feather them because of the slick road surface. Applying enough brake pressure to slow the front drive wheels at full throttle is certainly enough lock the rear wheels and cause a slide in the rain. And result is the same... Prius goes down an embankment somewhere.
Chris O 9:16AM (11/09/2009)
I, for one, hope that this doesn't turn into a manufacturer-biased flame war.
I'm not a fan of class-based litigation, but sometimes that's what you need to stimulate the appropriate response... after all, a REAL recall (part replacement + labor) could cost billions, so there is an incentive to stall or cover-up. The data is there to support a better investigation into this problem. Hopefully they will figure something out before more people die.
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Boreas 9:58AM (11/09/2009)
Of course for you its acceptable for Toyota to stall and cover up but not GM, correct?
Tourian 10:02AM (11/09/2009)
There should never be an incentive to stall and cover up when lives are at stake. You are very biased and apologetic for Toyota that is obvious. IF it were something like CD players getting jammed or air conditioning not getting very cold then maybe your tactic could be considered reasonable, but a life threatening issue? No.
Also, if this were a story about a domestic would the logo pictured above be on a rusting car, or wrecked car?
Chris O 10:03AM (11/09/2009)
Boreas :
Wow. That didn't take long. I didn't even mention manufacturers in my post, but I guess trolls don't care about stuff like that. If you want to know, I don't think it's acceptable for ANY manufacturer to cover-up or stall on an issue affecting public safety.
Boreas 1:28PM (11/09/2009)
Im sorry Chris O, but I was not acting like a troll . The impression I got from your comment was that you were trying to be apologetic towards Toyota.
mapoftazifosho 9:17AM (11/09/2009)
Having now gone out and looked at said Toyota vehicles under the recall...and owning one besides. (Not that I'm a Toyota fanboy, I own a GM and VW.) My conclusion: Anyone that suffers this issue is criminally negligent and should not have a driver's license. Hell, they probably shouldn't breed either...
If you keep it anchored in place, there won't be an issue. Once upon a time there were no floor mat anchors and my lord how ever did people survive...
This is the most absurd recall by NHTSA that I have ever seen. I seriously cannot even look at NHTSA as a legitimate organization anymore...
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