From the AAJ News Brief from March 23, 2010:
USA Today (3/23, O’Donnell) reports that in a Washington, DC, press conference scheduled for today, an attorney in a case against Toyota will claim that the automaker’s “safety systems are ‘deficient’ because they do not detect problems that lead to unintended acceleration. … Disputing Toyota’s claims that its ‘fail-safe’ systems prevent unwanted acceleration will be Tom Murray, a Sandusky, Ohio, lawyer who has brought dozens of unintended-acceleration cases over 20 years, and three British engineers who specialize in electronics and electromagnetic interference (EMI) from signals in or outside the car. The group also contends that no amount of testing could assure Toyota that EMI or software glitches can’t cause unintended acceleration.”
California sisters sue Toyota over 2008 crash. The San Jose Mercury News (3/23, Salonga) reports that a pair of sisters from Contra Costa County, California, filed suit this week alleging that Toyota is responsible “for injuries they suffered in a 2008 car accident, claiming their Camry suddenly accelerated and sent them crashing into a brick wall… The suit further claims that a recall of that Camry model would have prevented the accident.”
Toyota told dealers sudden acceleration linked to electronics in 2002. CNN (3/23, Griffin, Fitzpatrick) reports that in a 2002 technical service bulletin to its dealerships, Toyota warned “that Camry owners were complaining about throttles surging and recommended adjustments in an electronic control unit to fix the problem.” The document “went to every U.S. Toyota dealership in late August 2002 after some customers reported their vehicles were speeding up unexpectedly. ‘Some 2002 model year Camry vehicles may exhibit a surging during light throttle input at speeds between 38-42 mph,’ the bulletin states. ‘The Engine Control Module (ECM) calibration has been revised to correct this condition.'” CNN contrasts this document with Toyota’s repeated insistence that its sudden acceleration problems are not due to electronic factors.
Toyota Announces Plan To Replace Accelerators In Secondary Recall. The New York Times (3/23, Maynard, Bunkley) reports that Toyota has announced that its dealerships will “provide replacement accelerator pedals to owners unhappy with repairs” after a series of cases of unintended acceleration in cars that have already been through the recall process. “‘Accelerator pedal replacement is based on specific customer request only,’ said the memo, which was addressed to dealers, service managers and parts managers. ‘Dealers are not to solicit pedal replacement.'”
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