In June 2006, Koua Fong Lee was driving his pregnant wife and other family members home from church when he says his 1996 Toyota Camry accelerated on its own and the brakes stopped working. Lee struck another vehicle, killing three people in that car. A Minnesota jury convicted Lee of vehicular homicide and the native of Laos was sentenced to an eight-year prison sentence even though there was no evidence of alcohol or drugs involved in the incident.
Fast-forward to over three years later, and Toyota's recall woes for unintended acceleration are casting doubt on the jury's decision to convict Lee. But while the 1996 Camry isn't involved in the current recall, some 1996 models were recalled for unintended acceleration. Further, ABC News says that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received at least 17 other complaints of unintended acceleration in 1996 Camrys with comments like "couldn't stop" and "had to crash into a tree and another car to stop."
Brent Schafer, the lawyer for Lee, has asked for a new trial, and for his client to be set free until the time of a new hearing. The prosecution in the case told ABC News that it supports examining the 1996 Camry involved in the crash to determine if the car is at fault instead of Lee. For its part, Toyota has chosen not to comment to ABC News due to the fact that there could be a future lawsuit brought against the company. Click past the jump to watch the network's video coverage of this story (*Warning: videos may be slow to play – if they fail to load, please click here).
Tired of Toyota recall news? Try out the recall-free version of Autoblog.
[Source: ABC News]
Fast-forward to over three years later, and Toyota's recall woes for unintended acceleration are casting doubt on the jury's decision to convict Lee. But while the 1996 Camry isn't involved in the current recall, some 1996 models were recalled for unintended acceleration. Further, ABC News says that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received at least 17 other complaints of unintended acceleration in 1996 Camrys with comments like "couldn't stop" and "had to crash into a tree and another car to stop."
Brent Schafer, the lawyer for Lee, has asked for a new trial, and for his client to be set free until the time of a new hearing. The prosecution in the case told ABC News that it supports examining the 1996 Camry involved in the crash to determine if the car is at fault instead of Lee. For its part, Toyota has chosen not to comment to ABC News due to the fact that there could be a future lawsuit brought against the company. Click past the jump to watch the network's video coverage of this story (*Warning: videos may be slow to play – if they fail to load, please click here).
Tired of Toyota recall news? Try out the recall-free version of Autoblog.
[Source: ABC News]
