July 1, 2010: Ongoing Investigation of Toyota Recall
Wall
Street Journal reports on June 30th that U.S. regulators have yet to find any
electronic defects in Toyota Motor Corp., as a scientific panel began studying
potential causes of unintended acceleration. Some members of Congress, consumer advocates and
product-liability lawyers have suggested that engine electronics may have
played a role in problems that led Toyota to recall more than eight million
vehicles globally for sudden-acceleration and gas-pedal problems. Those critics
have questioned the efforts by Toyota and regulators to study electronics. Dan
Smith of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, speaking before a
panel of the National Academy of Sciences said regulators have been able to
identify only two causes of the Toyota problems: floor-mat entrapment of the
gas pedals and pedals that are slow to return to idle. The academy is undertaking a comprehensive
study of unintended acceleration and will offer recommendations on how regulators
should improve standards and identify defects. Mr. Smith said his agency hasn't ruled out the possibility of
electronic defects and that investigations are ongoing. NHTSA is working with
NASA engineers to study the Toyota recalls, including possible electronic
defects. NHTSA chief David
Strickland told the academy panel that unintended acceleration is a problem
that affects all major car manufacturers. Another NHTSA official, Roger Saul,
told the panel that the agency has, since Toyota's first recall in October,
received complaints of 64 crashes involving 78 deaths, some occurring years
ago. Regulators have been able to
verify that only one of those incidents was caused by a vehicle defect, Mr. Saul said.
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