Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety, Lexus, Toyota



Following a statement from the DOT and NHTSA asserting that the unintended acceleration issue potentially involving millions of Toyota vehicles is "not closed," McCuneWright, LLP, a law firm in Southern California, has filed a national class action lawsuit on behalf of all Toyota and Lexus owners that claim to have experienced this phenomenon. Representing the class will be Los Angeles County residents Seong Bae Choi (owner of a 2004 Camry) and Chris Chan Park (owner of a 2008 FJ Cruiser).

According to the suit, Toyota has known about reports of unintended acceleration for years and has received over 2,000 such complaints. Citing statistics from Safety Research & Strategies, Inc., the lawsuit alleges that there have been 16 fatalities and 243 injuries from Toyota and Lexus crashes attributed to runaway vehicles. Toyota attributes these accidents to improperly installed or incorrect floormats that prevent the accelerator pedal from returning to its idle position.

Wright, though, said in a statement, "[N]either driver error nor floormats can explain away many other frightening instances of runaway Toyotas. Until the company acknowledges the real problem and fixes it, we worry that other preventable injuries and deaths will occur." Hit the jump for the official press release from McCuneWright.

[Source: McCuneWright, LLP]Continue reading Class action suit filed against Toyota over sudden acceleration claims

Class action suit filed against Toyota over sudden acceleration claims originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.



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I can't believe people are too stupid to put their car in neutral, or turn the car off on a straight away. It sucks that this is occuring and toyota should fix it but people should not be dying, if you've got time to call 911 you should have time to figure out how to stop the car.

 

I bet these people all have 2 or 3 sets of floor mats.

 

Dont forget America doesnt know how to drive.

 

This was my sons High School wresting couches family, so lets keep stupid comments off this site!!

 

Truck Action, I don't think the comments here were meant to be rude in any way. I think they're just stating the fact that some people do not know how to handle a car if a situation like that occurs.

I used to wash & detail cars a few years ago and I came across quite a few that had 2 floor mats on each side. Not saying Toyota should not look into this, though.

However, Nam....I definitly don't agree with your comment.

 

I only mention the floor mats because I have driven more then one vehicle where a loose floormat interfered in some way with the gas pedal.

...all of them german cars now that I think about it.

I could absolutely see something wrong with the gas pedals themselves. Throttle by wire gas pedals rely on a lot of plastic.

 

Yeah, my comment was WAYY too broad.


I agree, my floor mats are annoying...


I apologize.

 

my 95 corvette does this from time to time. It's not a huge deal if you don't let the mat work its way forward.