Personal Injury Law

How Long Has Toyota Known About Accelerator Problems?

By Jamie G. Goldstein

In just the last few months Toyota alerted consumers to potential problems with sticking accelerators in several of its vehicles. Many consumers believe these problems have recently come to light, however, the reality may be that Toyota knew it had a problem on its hands for over a year.

State Farm has recently revealed that it began warning federal safety regulators of the accelerator problem in 2007. State Farm based this warning to safety regulators on data collected from numerous collisions its insured motorists had been involved in during 2007 and prior years. In addition to the data State Farm had on the problems with the accelerators, there were also a vast amount of consumer complaints made regarding the defect. Investigations are ongoing to determine how long the safety regulators sat on this information before informing Toyota. I

Based on the information State Farm has recently come forward with, federal safety regulators may have known about this dangerous problem for more than 2 years before the initial recall and Toyota may have been aware for more than 1 year.

These failures to warn consumers in a timely manner have likely led to an increase in collisions leading to injuries and death. Had consumers known 1 or 2 years ago about the dangers of the Toyota vehicles, they may have been able to avoid serious injury and death. If you or someone you know was involved in a collision as a result of a faulty accelerator, you may be entitled to money damages. Contact a lawyer for more information.

Full post as published by Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer on February 09, 2010 (boomark / email).