The Unintended Acceleration of Toyota Vehicle's Has Been Determined To Be Driver Error
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By
Levinson Axelrod, P.A.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced on August
24, 2015 that it would not open a probe into millions of Toyota vehicles
regarding possible unintended acceleration. The agency announced that
it denied a petition to investigate “low-speed surging” (also
known as unintended acceleration) as they believed the accidents involved
were consistent with driver error. The agency relied upon Event Data Recorder
data (as described in this post by Levinson Axelrod attorney, Michael
Fusco, Esq.) to determine that three crashes which led to serious accidents
were consistent with pedal misapplications by the drivers. In 2009, Toyota
paid a $1.2 billion fine to the Department of Justice following the tragic
death of a California Highway Patrolman and his family in a Lexus, after
the vehicle allegedly malfunctioned and went off the road at around 120-mph.
This incident, and others, have led to the recall of millions of Toyota
vehicles, and countless civil lawsuits.
