Personal Injury Law

Toyota Regulators help fuel the fire in Toyota's latest safety woes

By LaBovick Law

As though it could not get any worse for  Toyota Motor Corp., a new report shows that two former Toyota regulators helped ward off four U.S. investigations of unintended acceleration by Toyota vehicles. This was uncovered in recent court and government records. Who can we trust to make sure that safety standards are being followed for consumer products, especially automobiles?

Two people at the heart of this new revelation are: Christopher Tinto, vice president of regulatory affairs in Toyota's Washington office, and Christopher Santucci, who works for Tinto. Allegedly, these individuals encouraged the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to discontinue looking into 2002-2003 Toyota Camrys and Solaras, court documents show. The most alarming revelation is that Tinto ans Santucci were former NHTSA employees before joining Toyota.

Unfortunately, criticism of NHTSA and Toyota is pretty high right now, for the handling of defects in Toyota and Lexus models tied to 19 deaths between 2004 and 2009. Three congressional committees have scheduled hearings on the recalls Feb. 24 and Feb. 25. The Senate Commerce Committee plans a hearing March 2.

Joan Claybrook, an auto safety advocate and former NHTSA administrator in the Jimmy Carter administration stated the following: "Toyota bamboozled NHTSA or NHTSA was bamboozled by itself. I think there is going to be a lot of heat on NHTSA over this."

Toyota, the once media darling, is facing one of the largest scandals in the history of the automaker.  Years of carefully building a stellar image are being diminished in one fell swoop, each day a new revelation is made in the fiasco over safety issues. The Toyota Motor Corp. stock closed today at 76.01, a continued downward spiral.

In an effort to promote safety, we encourage all Toyota owners to contact their local Toyota dealer to find out if their vehicle is a part of the recall.  It will not hurt to take your car in to the shop, just to make sure. Safety and precaution go hand in hand.  You can also contact Toyota directly to see if your car is on the list. However, taking your car to a local Toyota Dealer for a check-up to be sure, can only help improve your chances of being safe in your Toyota.

Click on the following link to read more on the Bloomberg article: Regulators Hired by Toyota Helped Halt Investigations

Full post as published by LaBovick Injury Law Blog on February 17, 2010 (boomark / email).