Personal Injury Law

Innocent People Jailed Because of Toyota?s Denial of Defective Vehicles?The ?TOYOTA DEFENSE?

By Lawrence Egerton

Koua Fong Lee, 32, of St. Paul, Minnesota was charged and convicted of vehicular homicide when his 1996 Toyota Camry crashed into an Oldsmobile, killing three. The Toyota Camry accelerated up an exit ramp at speeds 70-90 mph though Lee claims he was stepping on the brakes the whole time.

Lee, a Hmong immigrant, had only been driving for a year when the accident occurred on June 10, 2006. A jury did not believe his story, and he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Now, new evidence of unintended acceleration—which forced the recall of millions of Toyota models—should set Lee free. Though his 1996 Camry has not been included in the recent wave of Toyota recalls, the same year and model vehicles were previously recalled 'for defective cruise controls that could cause sudden acceleration,' according to an article on msnbc.msn.com.

Not only does the prosecutor of Lee's case concede that the situation deserves another look, but also relatives of the victims now feel Lee is innocent and will file suit against Toyota.

How many innocent people could be behind bars because of defective Toyota vehicles? As if it isn't bad enough that people have been injured and killed because of accelerator malfunctions, now it turns out that innocent citizens have been wrongly deprived of their liberty. How can executives at Toyota Motor Corp. sleep soundly knowing that in addition to killing and injuring drivers and passengers, innocent motorists are serving time because officials at Toyota failed to own up to their automobiles' safety issues?

Full post as published by Greensboro Personal Injury Lawyer on February 26, 2010 (boomark / email).