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Numerous Toyota vehicle owners have been involved in accidents after the gas pedals in their cars became stuck to the floorboard beneath floor mats that slid out of place. During the past several months, Toyota has recalled nearly 6 million vehicles in the United States due to unexpected acceleration, which may occur due to sticky gas pedals and floor mat interference.

On March 12, 2010, prosecutors in Orange County, California filed a lawsuit against Toyota because of continuing problems with its vehicles, according to a recently Associated Press news report.

The district attorney’s office accuses the automaker of knowingly selling hundreds of thousands of vehicles with acceleration defects. The office says it has the right to bring consumer protective action on behalf of Orange County residents. Regulators have linked 52 deaths to crashes allegedly caused by accelerator problems.

At least 89 class-action lawsuits have been filed against the Japanese auto giant, which could cost it $3 billion or more. Additionally, Toyota has recalled some Prius and Corolla models due to brake and steering column problems.

Over the past several months, Toyota Motor Corporation has recalled nearly 9 million vehicles due to sticky gas pedals and floor mat interference, which can cause sudden/unintentional acceleration, steering column problems and brake problems. Sudden/unintentional acceleration can cause serious injuries and even death.

On February 23, 2010, Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota acknowledged in prepared remarks made public that the automaker’s efforts to expand resulted in lax safety standards.

The driver of a Toyota Prius who called 911 on March 8, 2010 to report his accelerator was stuck finally got the car stopped after about 20 minutes with the help of the California Highway Patrol, officers said, according to a recently published Los Angeles Times news report.

“He was reaching speeds over 90 miles per hour,” CHP Officer Larry Landeros said of the driver, James Sikes. A Toyota spokesman said that the company, which has recalled millions of vehicles because of reports of unintended acceleration, was sending a representative to investigate the cause of the incident.

The cell phone call came about 1:30 p.m. from the driver of the 2008 Prius eastbound on Interstate 8 in San Diego County. “He was driving near the La Posta Indian Reservation when he called 911 and said his gas pedal was stuck,” Landeros said.

“I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny, it jumped and it just stuck there,” Sikes, 61, said at a news conference. “As it was going, I was trying the brakes, it wasn’t stopping.”

A CHP patrol officer caught up to the Prius about 20 minutes later and used a loudspeaker to tell the driver to apply his emergency brake in tandem with the brake pedal, Landeros said.

Sudden unintended acceleration has allegedly been the cause of 56 fatal accidents involving Toyotas in the U.S., going back as far as 2004.

The Prius that Sikes was driving was one of more than 4 million Toyota vehicles recalled in November because of the reported acceleration problems.

 Toyota Motor Corp claims that vehicle safety and regaining trust from its customers are the company’s main goals as they continue to resolve issues behind the recent recalls of 8.5 million vehicles due to sticky gas pedals and floor mat interference, which can cause sudden acceleration, steering column problems and brake problems. On March 5, 2010, a House committee questioned how thoroughly Toyota has tested its vehicles for sudden acceleration, and asked the Japanese automaker for more records on the safety issues, according to a recent Associated Press news report.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee told Toyota executive Jim Lentz in a letter that there is “an absence of documents” to show whether the company thoroughly investigated the possibility of unintended acceleration. The committee demanded to know who is involved with the testing and receive quarterly reports detailing allegations of the unwanted acceleration.

“We do not understand the basis for Toyota’s repeated assertions that it is ‘confident’ there are no electronic defects contributing to incidents of sudden unintended acceleration,” wrote Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich.

Adding to the doubts, the government has received more than 60 complaints from Toyota owners who had their vehicles fixed following the recalls but say they’ve had more problems with their vehicles surging forward unintentionally. Toyota dealers have been fixing the accelerator pedals but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Thursday that if the remedy provided by Toyota is not addressing the issue, the government could order the company to provide a different solution.

Toyota hired a consulting firm to study whether electronic problems could cause unintended acceleration. The firm, Exponent Inc., released an interim report that has found no link between the two. But committee investigators have said the Exponent test was flawed because it studied only a small number of Toyota vehicles.

In the letter, Waxman and Stupak also request more details on brake override systems and “black box” information in Toyota vehicles.

Toyota plans to install brakes that can override the gas pedal in future models and many vehicles already on the road. The safety measure is meant to prevent the unintended acceleration that has caused some Toyota drivers to speed out of control.

The committee also wants to know what information is available in Toyota electronic data recorders. The “black box” information could help investigators learn more about what is happening in the vehicles before crashes. A review by the Associated Press found that Toyota has been inconsistent and sometimes even contradictory in revealing what the devices record and don’t record, such as critical data about whether brake or accelerator pedals were depressed at the time of a crash.

The NHTSA has linked 52 deaths to crashes allegedly caused by Toyota’s acceleration problems.