Toyota pays $10 million to settle the first big sudden acceleration lawsuit.
That incident led to the first of the maker’s big recalls for so-called sudden acceleration which, in turn, has led to hundreds of lawsuits and a series of record fines for the humbled Japanese automaker.
The August 2009 accident apparently occurred when the floor mat of a Lexus sedan driven by California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor jammed the accelerator pedal. The vehicle quickly raced out of control, reaching speeds as high as 120 mph before slamming into an SUV, careening off the road, down an embankment and then repeatedly rolling over before bursting into flames. Saylor, 45, was killed along with three members of his family.
Shortly afterwards, Toyota announced it would agree to recall millions of vehicles prone to having their floor mats jam under the accelerator pedal. The following January, the maker also agreed to recall millions more vehicles with potentially sticky accelerator pedals. But it has since been fined heavily for delaying those and various other safety-related recalls. (For more, Click Here.)
The payment with Saylor’s family was originally supposed to be kept secret – as often happens with out-of-court settlements – but was released to the Los Angeles Times by Larry Willis, a lawyer in Orange County, California, who is representing the dealership that loaned the Lexus to the police officer.
The dealership was also sued by the family but has yet to reach a settlement.
“As is common in these cases, these parties agreed to keep the amount confidential, in part to protect the families from unwanted solicitations and to allow them to move on from this difficult period,” Toyota said, in a statement. But observers say the carmaker also was hoping to avoid the publicity, fearing news of such a large cash settlement could encourage others suing the company over safety and related issues.
A major class action is now underway in Southern California, but there have been hundreds of other lawsuits filed around the country .
In the Saylor case, investigators clearly determined that the crash was caused by so-called “carpet entrapment,” but Toyota is hoping to have other lawsuits tossed out, insisting there is little to no evidence, in most instances, that its vehicles were actually at fault. An ongoing study conducted for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found a significant number of instances where driver error appears to have been to blame.
But that may be little comfort to the maker, which has watched as ongoing safety problems have tattered its once bulletproof reputation. Since the launch of the first sudden acceleration action Toyota has recalled more than 11 million vehicles, most in the U.S. While some recent surveys suggest the maker’s image may actually be recovering, Toyota was the only major auto brand to watch its sales slip, in October and November, even as the U.S. new car market showed significant signs of recovery.