At least 34 deaths are now believed to be linked to runaway Toyotas, consumeraffairs.com reports. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, is the federal agency overseeing the recall of defective Toyotas over the last several months.
NHTSA has received a surge of new death reports, jumping by 13 since January. Ten injury reports have come in, many occurring between 2000 and 2009. And the agency has received 1,000 new complaints about the recalled Prius, and about and the accidental accelerations of Toyotas.
Nearly all of the acceleration problems have occurred since the cars had computerized systems substituted for mechanical in the acceleration in 2002. One of the deaths went back as far as 1988 in a runaway Camry. The economical Prius has had 124 complaints and four accidents and two injuries reported to NHTSA. Even the 2010 Lexus HS 250h has had a brake problem that required a recall.
Liability Issues
At last count 500,000 cars have been repaired for a sticky accelerator problem, but since Toyota is not sure what caused the problem in the first place, it’s difficult to have full confidence that the problem has been fixed. After all, this is the company that blamed ill-fitting floor mats or consumers making driver errors. We may just be beginning to see the actual number of fatalities due to defective Toyotas as law enforcement agencies revisit unexplained accident involving Toyotas and sudden acceleration.
If I had a family member or loved one involved in such a fatal crash, I would want to get an accident attorney involved in the investigation to see what role, if any, a defective automobile may have played in the accident. An investigation could reveal whether a sticky accelerator pedal or faulty brake contributed to the crash. An individual can then preserve their rights to hold the appropriate party accountable.
