Safety Critic Calls Out Toyota
On February 7, 2010, a consumer advocate who is scheduled to testify in a congressional probe of safety issues at Toyota Motor Corp said the automaker has evaded a full investigation of unintended acceleration in its vehicles and faces a risk of growing recalls according to a recent Reuters news report.
“I suspect that we are going to see a series of recalls appear over a period of time here, certainly over the next year, and they are going to address varying issues and varying vehicles,” said Sean Kane, founder of the Safety Research & Strategies Inc, a consumer safety group. A 180-page report the group published on its website found that Toyota had yet to fully identify the causes of unintended acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles that have led to its largest ever recall.
The report found Toyota had limited the scope of earlier probes into unintended acceleration, blamed media attention for driving up the number of complaints and then resorted to the least expensive remedy by recalling floor mats.
Some 2,260 consumer complaints for sudden acceleration span many years and a wider range of models than have been covered by Toyota’s recalls in recent months, the report found. The consumer data also suggests the problem cannot be resolved by Toyota’s recommended remedy -replacing a sticky pedal or floor mat the report found.
To date, Toyota has recalled nearly 8 million vehicles worldwide, including its best-selling Camry and Corolla sedans for the repair of sticky accelerator pedals or adjustments to prevent floor mats from entrapping the pedal.
While pedal entrapment by the floor mat may be a cause of unintended acceleration, it does not cover all the reported incidents and there is a need to examine Toyota’s electronic system for a potential cause, the report said.
Toyota has so far ruled out its electronic “drive-by-wire” throttle system as a cause of the unintended acceleration complaints filed by consumers, and instead identified mechanical issues as the answer to the problems. Toyota introduced the electronic throttle control to some models in 1998 and widened its use with the 2002 model year.
Since 1999, at least 2,262 Toyota and Lexus owners have reported uncontrolled acceleration problems resulting in 815 crashes, 341 injuries and 19 deaths, the report found.
