Personal Injury Law

Toyota may have had ?Silent Recall? in September 2007

By now millions of Americas know about the Toyota recall and the crash problems related to the acceleration. We all have heard reports about people being unable to stop their vehicles because the floor mats were not secure and got stuck under the accelerator causing it to be impossible to stop the speeding vehicle. Residents of Tennessee are no exception to these reports and this massive recall.

Many of us do not know however, that Toyota may have known about these problems in September of 2007 but it was only considered a ?technical service bulletin? and only given to about 1,500 Toyota and Lexus dealers. Then in April of 2008 an almost identical bulletin was sent out cautioning that improperly installed floor mats could cause crashes in the Camry, Corolla, Matrix, Sienna, Tundra, Sequoia and Land Cruiser.

In both of these cases, the notices were told to Toyota dealers and to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and were more serious than the warnings given to the public. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had an agreement with Toyota to replace all weather related floor mats with new ones and make sure they were secure and will not slip under the accelerator. Drivers of the Prius hybrid and Avalon were also ?strongly urged? to make sure their floor mats were secure. Even with all these warnings however, the risk of crashes and other danger were not mentioned.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently investigating whether or not Toyota provided all the information that safety regulations require in a timely manner.

Full post as published by Tennessee Law Blog on March 29, 2010 (boomark / email).