California Family Files Lawsuit Against Toyota
More and more reports of Toyota owners experiencing sudden acceleration have been revealed since the recent recalls of millions of vehicles. Toyota announced that the problem was due to sticky gas pedals and floor mat interference, but the U.S. government claims that comments made by the automaker are deceptive. As a result the U.S. government launched a probe to investigate the issue at hand and in recent days has shifted its focus to electronic throttle system in Toyota and Lexus vehicles.
On February 4, 2010, relatives of a California woman killed in the crash of her Toyota Camry sued the automaker on and demanded the company vastly expand its recall according to a Reuters News report. The suit asserts the crash that killed Noriko Uno, 66, was triggered by a defect in Toyota’s electronic “drive-by-wire” throttle system, which the car maker has so far ruled out as a cause of incidents of unintended acceleration in its vehicles.
Toyota has recalled nearly 8 million vehicles worldwide, including 2.3 million in the United States for the repair of sticking gas pedals in its eight top-selling models and millions of other Toyota vehicles were recalled for floor mat adjustments.
For the Camry, which accounts for the largest number of U.S. vehicles involved, the recalls cover 2007 through 2010 model-year cars. Uno’s car, bought new by the family from a local dealership, was a 2006 model, though it had just 10,000 miles on it at the time of the crash.
“Witnesses saw her vehicle rocketing 100 miles an hour, weaving in and out of traffic trying to avoid hitting people and it eventually hit a curb, went airborne, hit a pole, then hit a tree, and she died,” he said.
The Uno accident took place August 28, 2009, the same day as the crash of a runaway Lexus driven by an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer near San Diego that killed him and three others.
