Personal Injury Law

Toyota- Another Example of Manufacturer Negligence

By Jeff Rasansky

By now, most of America has heard about the recall of thousands of Toyota vehicles. These vehicles have a dangerous problem that causes them to accelerate out of control, often resulting in serious injuries or death for the people trapped inside of the car.

Toyota tried to blame this problem on faulty floormats, but when cars continued to accelerate out of control with the floormats safely locked in the trunk, Toyota was forced to reconsider the cause of the problem. Now, there has been a recall of over 2 million vehicles so that Toyota can fix the sticky accelerator pedals, believing that the problem lies there.

But some people, including Steve Wozniak- the co-founder of Apple Computers- believe that the problem actually has to do with the software in the car, not the actual accelerator pedal. Mr. Wozniak points to the fact that he experienced an acceleration problem in his 2010 Prius while it was in cruise-control, which meant that his foot was not on the accelerator pedal to cause it to stick.

The clincher is that Toyota admits to having had knowledge about an accelerator problem over a year ago, but they're just now doing something about it. Which means that, had Toyota spoken up, they might have saved some innocent lives, rather than just having saved face.

This is just another example of manufacturer negligence, albeit a much more publicized one. Companies in every industry will cut corners on safety or turn a blind eye to defects in order to make a bigger profit, or to avoid a scandal.

Fortunately, America has consumer protection laws to ensure that companies provide honest and accurate information about their products, so that innocent people can be as safe as possible. I suggest that you take full advantage of these laws, and make sure that you receive due compensation if you are ever deceived or harmed as a consumer.

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