Orlando Personal Injury Lawyer Skeptical of Fed Report on Toyota

By Orlando Personal Injury Attorney on February 8, 2011

A federal investigation into Toyota’s well-documented safety problems in many of its most popular models found no evidence of electronic flaws to explain numerous reports of sudden, uncontrolled and unintended acceleration and other problems. Government safety investigators issued their much-anticipated report recently and stated that the causes of the problems were mechanical in nature and that Toyota has addressed them in recent recalls.

NASA engineers worked with Transportation Department officials for 10 months on the report. Congress had ordered the report after receiving numerous complaints filed by Toyota owners stating that flawed electronic components in Toyota throttle systems were to blame for the sudden, unintended acceleration problems and many accidents.

“We enlisted the best and brightest engineers to study Toyota’s electronics systems and the verdict is in. There is no electronic-based cause for unintended acceleration in Toyotas,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement.

Since fall 2009, Toyota has recalled more than 12 million of its vehicles around the world to fix floor mats, which can cause gas pedals to become stuck, faulty accelerator pedals and other serious safety issues. Toyota’s reputation for safe and reliable vehicles has taken some hits since one recall after another prompted lawsuits for injuries suffered in accidents, loss of resale value and other damages. Toyota paid a record $48.4 million in fines to the U.S. government for its handling of its recalls.

The report claims that NASA engineers “rigorously examined” nine Toyota cars owned by people who had complained about sudden acceleration problems with their vehicles. The engineers pored over 280,000 lines of software code in their search for anything that could lead to the unintended acceleration problems. They also tested many different mechanical components that could have contributed to the problems and explored other means of seeing if they could trigger sudden acceleration in the test vehicles. Transportation officials reported that they plan to continue testing Toyota’s electronic control systems despite finding no evidence thus far that flaws in these systems led to sudden acceleration accidents, injuries and at least 93 deaths.

Orlando personal injury attorney James O. Cunningham is continuing to monitor developments in this story very closely and has successfully represented many different Central Florida clients injured in recalled Toyota vehicles. If you have suffered an injury in a vehicle affected by one of the Toyota recalls and you have questions about your legal options, call James O. Cunningham at 888-425-2004 or 407-425-2000 to schedule a free consultation to discuss your case. Call him today and get an experienced, aggressive Orlando personal injury lawyer on your side!

James O. Cunningham

Since 1977, personal injury lawyer James Cunningham has provided effective legal advocacy to people who are injured through the negligent actions of another person or entity throughout the Central Florida area. He fights to obtain recoveries for his clients’ physical and emotional pain and suffering and pursues his clients’ personal injury cases with a commitment to excellence and impeccable preparation.