Roswold Law Group Blog

Will the Toyota Fix Work? Federal Investigators Looking at Other Possible Causes of Sudden Unintended Acceleration

It was reported today by CNN that Federal investigators with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration are looking into whether Toyota’s electronic throttle control systems might be responsible for the numerous reported incidents of sudden unintended acceleration. Although Toyota has announced a “fix” for what has been described as an accelerator pedal problem, other safety experts appear to believe that electromagnetic interference may be causing Toyota's electronic throttle control systems to malfunction.

Toyota claims that it has fully tested the throttle control systems in an effort to determine the cause of the acceleration problems and that there is no evidence that the electronic throttle control mechanism is responsible.

Meanwhile, Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood seemed suggest to Toyota owners that the need to repair the gas pedal problem identified by Toyota was more urgent than previously stated. In a statement to a House of Representatives committee investigating the Toyota problems, Secretary LaHood stated that Toyota drivers should “stop driving” and take affected cars back to the company. He later referred to that as a “misstatement” and said he only meant that owners should take their cars into the dealer for the announced repair.

All of this suggests that the powers that be are not totally convinced yet by Toyota’s announced fix. Needless to say, Toyota owners are somewhat confused and frustrated.  Stay tuned.