The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed yesterday that it had received ten reports of acceleration problems on Toyota vehicles, which had been fixed according to the proscribed Toyota recall method.
[Editor’s note: As of this evening:The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received more than 60 complaints from Toyota owners who report they are still experiencing sudden unintended acceleration despite having their vehicle repaired by a Toyota dealer. This number increased from the original ten in our original story when we asked NHTSA for the current status. -Ken Zino ]
NHTSA administrator David Strickland confirmed a Los Angeles Times story citing Safety Research and Strategies, a consulting firm looking at Toyota complaints.
The key word is “unverified,” but the complaints, which NHTSA is in the process of investigating, raise more doubts about the assertions by Toyota executives made earlier this week before a Senate panel that unintended acceleration issues are solved by floor mat and pedal entrapment recalls on more than six million vehicles in the U.S.
“I want to be absolutely clear, as a result of our extensive testing, we do not believe sudden unintended acceleration because of a defect in our E.T.C.S. has ever happened,” Takeshi Uchiyamada, executive vice president for Toyota, said in his Senate testimony.
NHTSA also said that it now has reports of 52 fatalities and 38 injuries in incidents alleged to have been caused by unexpected or uncontrolled acceleration of a Toyota product.
“NHTSA has already started contacting consumers about these complaints to get to the bottom of the problem and to make sure Toyota is doing everything possible to make its vehicles safe. If Toyota owners are still experiencing sudden acceleration incidents after taking their cars to the dealership, we want to know about it. ” Strickland said in a statement.
NHTSA has also purchased the Toyota-made Lexus ES350 formerly owned by Rhonda and Eddie Smith. The Smiths testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week about an unintended acceleration “event” that Rhonda Smith reported she experienced while driving the car in 2006.
The car was sold with 3,000 miles on it several years ago, and NHTSA has now acquired it with approximately 30,000 miles on the odometer. The Smiths’ former car is being taken to NHTSA’s Vehicle Research & Test Center (VRTC) in East Liberty, OH, where it will be thoroughly studied.
NHTSA has only five electrical engineers and one software engineer among its 125 engineers who work on safety issues.
“NHTSA has the most active defects investigations program in the world,” said Strickland. “Our team is committed to finding possible causes for sudden acceleration to ensure that the vehicles on our roads are as safe as possible.”
Ken,
I really think this just goes to point out that driver error is still a highly likely factor. I’m not sure if you saw the WSJ editorial about this (last week i think), but the infamous Lexus event does reveal evidence of floor mat problems compounded by driver error. I know you are reporting this stuff as it comes out, but this all seems to be so much of a witch hunt combined with political agendas and trial lawyer’s zeroing in for a kill.
As of late today according to NHTSA:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received more than 60 complaints from Toyota owners who report they are still experiencing sudden unintended acceleration despite having their vehicle repaired by a Toyota dealer.
Officials are contacting each and every consumer to learn more about what they say is happening. NHTSA has also asked Toyota to provide information about any complaints it has received from customers.
If it appears that a remedy provided by Toyota is not addressing the problem it was intended to fix, NHTSA has the authority to order Toyota to provide a different solution.
“We are determined to get to the bottom of this,” said David Strickland, administrator of the auto safety agency
Steve: Yes, all of what you say could be factors here.
Lexus event you are referring too, I assume is the San Diego CHIPs incident, which – as was revealed in testimony this week – was on a car that had previous complaints about the same problem before the dealer lent it out again. Multiple driver errors, then?
There is also fatal accident where the mats were locked in the trunk.
And now we are up to all these complaints about repaired cars having the problem.