text size Pedal Problem Sends
SUV Crashing Into 7 Cars, Downtown
Building Updated: Tuesday, April 29 2014,
05:40 PM EDT COLUMBUS (Sean Rowe) -- A
driver says a stuck accelerator sent her
Lexus SUV careening off of East Broad
Street and into the side of building in
downtown Columbus Tuesday.
text size Pedal Problem Sends
SUV Crashing Into 7 Cars, Downtown
Building Updated: Tuesday, April 29 2014,
05:40 PM EDT COLUMBUS (Sean Rowe) -- A
driver says a stuck accelerator sent her
Lexus SUV careening off of East Broad
Street and into the side of building in
downtown Columbus Tuesday.
A day after opening
talks to resolve hundreds of
sudden-acceleration cases in federal and
state court in California, Toyota Motor
Corp. has settled a
separate lawsuit, filed in West
Virginia.On Friday, the Japanese
automaker reached a confidential
agreement with Opal Gay Vance, whose
2010 Camry accelerated and crashed into
a trailer and injured her back and neck,
her attorney said.The case had been
scheduled to go to trial on Jan. 21,
making it the next sudden-acceleration
case Toyota was expected to face
anywhere in the country. “There seemed
to be a pretty clear purpose on Toyota’s
part to get a deal done” and keep the
case out of court, attorney Edgar “Hike”
Heiskell said. “There was a real sense
of motivation on that side of the
table.” A spokeswoman for
Toyota declined comment.
Allen Gilman was pulling into the driveway of his
Thurber Avenue home at a crawl when, with his foot
still on the brakes,
his 2003
Toyota Camry lurched forward and crashed into
garage.
October -November 2013 Technical Comment on
Expert testimony provided by
Dr Michael Barr in
Bookout v. Toyota Case
27 November 2013 EE
Journal : Article by Jim Turley
November 19th 2012 : CHINA
: A Toyota Zelas car was seriously damaged
after a crash due to a failure of
the braking system during
cruise control on the Hanghzou-Pudong
Expressway.
Source China Radio
International. Toyota
(China) declared on Tuesday 4th December
2012 that the failure of the braking
system of a Toyota Zelas during cruise control
on Hangzhou-Pudong Expressway is still under
investigation, Shanghai newspaper Eastday
reported on 6th December 2012.
Centre for
Auto Safety: Summary of links on
Sudden
Acceleration
in Toyota Vehicles including:
related news articles; recalls & safety
campaigns; NHTSA Defect Investigations
Sept 23rd 2011 CALCE
: Prediction of Potential Failures Risks
in Toyota Vehicles Confirmed by NASA
Scientists
Investigations of Toyota vehicles have
revealed tin whiskers in a critical component
of their vehicle engine control system. At the
September CALCE Conference on Tin Whiskers,
Henning Leidecker and his team at NASA’s
Goddard Space Flight Center, who are
recognized experts on electronic device
failure and tin whiskers, presented their
studies of tin whiskers on Toyota vehicles.
They determined that the risk of failure due
to tin whisker shorting in affected Toyota
vehicles can be on the order of 50 to 150 per
million. This figure agrees with the number
reported in a recently published scientific
journal article [Sood et al.]
written by CALCE researchers Bhanu Sood,
Michael Osterman, and Michael Pecht. They
assessed the probability of a tin
whisker–induced electrical short to be 140 per
1 million, based on whisker growth statistics.
Feb
18 2011 NHTSA issues redacted NASA
report entitled "National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration Toyota Unintended
Acceleration Investigation'. Redacted
report and appendices available at: http://www.nhtsa.gov/UA
Note by AFA:
This NASA technical report is of the highest
importance for the future safety of millions
of motorists worldwide. In my opinion
redaction undermines the work carried out by
NASA. Only with free and open discussion of
the full contents of the report will the state
of the art regarding the causes of sudden
acceleration be advanced. Click to download
pdf entitled: Redaction in
the 2011 NASA Report "NHTSA Toyota
Unintended Acceleration Investigation"
Ramsey
County Attorney Press Room Including expert
reports provided for the prosecution
filed with Ramsey County District Court on
June 30, 2010, along with the State’s
response to Lee's petition for a new trial.
Feb 12
2010 Toyota strongly denies any
"problems with the electronics of its
vehicles"in a letter to Congress.
ABC News By JOSEPH RHEE, MARK SCHONE and MEGAN
CHUCHMACH Feb. 12. On Feb 2 2010 Darrell Issa,
Representative Member of the US House of
Representatives' Committee on Oversight and
Government, wrote a letter
to Toyota seeking clarification on various
issues including the possibile role of
electromagnetic interference in causing sudden
accelerations. Toyota replied in a letter
to Congress dated Feb 9th 2010, strongly
denied any "problems with the electronics of its
vehicles" and said an outside engineering firm
(Exponent) had cleared its electronic throttle
control system of any problems and that the
system "performed as designed." http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/toyota-congress-problems-electronics-cars/story?id=9823148
Feb 11 2010 :
In deadly St. Paul crash, was the Toyota to
blame? Jailed driver's lawyer wants to
reopen 2006 vehicular-homicide case. by Emily
Gurnon egurnon@pioneerpress.com http://www.twincities.com/ci_14377954?source=most_emailed
Jan 27th 2010
Texas Star Telegram : Dozens
of sudden-acceleration incidents documented in
Texas
At least 103 cases of sudden, uncommanded
acceleration in Toyota and Lexus vehicles have
been documented in Texas since 2000, mostly
involving the popular Toyota Camry and Lexus ES
models. The figures are compiled by Safety
Research & Strategies Inc., a private safety
advising and consulting service, from the
National Highway Transportation Safety
Administration and complaints the firm received
directly.
Jan.
21, 2010: TOYOTA RECALL: Reports
of Runaway Cars : Four Dead
in Dallas Crash Where Problem
Floor Mats Found in Trunk.By
BRIAN ROSS, JOSEPH RHEE and
DREW SANDHOLM ABC News. Toyota,
which
launched the largest auto recall
in U.S. history last fall after
incidents of random acceleration
resulting in fatalities, has just
announced an additional
recall of 2.3 million vehicles
to correct sticking accelerator
pedals. The recall was
announced late Thursday afternoon,
after ABC News informed the
company that the latest in a long
series of ABC News investigative
reports into sudden unexplained
acceleration in Toyotas was about
to air.
Jan 19th 2010
theage.com.au: Woman freed from
'hanging' car. Woman leaving a
level 1 carpark in an office block in George
Street, Parramatta, Sydney, Australia lost
control of her Toyota Corolla, hit the
building's brick wall and smashed through it.
The vehicle was left hanging in mid air with the
driver trapped. Also Couriermail.com.au Video
November 26th 2009: LA Times:Toyota to fix
'very dangerous' gas pedal defects.
The recall, which covers 4.26 million
cars and trucks, is aimed at reducing the
vehicles' risk of sudden accelerations, which
have led to 19 deaths since the 2002 model
year.
October
17th
2009
: LA Times: Toyota's runaway-car worries
may not stop at floor mats:A
fatal accident in San Diego raises the
question: Might a vehicle's complex
electronic features make it hard for
drivers to react quickly when accelerating
out of control? http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-toyota-recall18-2009oct18,0,739395.story
October
16th 2009 : NEW YORK, Oct. 16 /PRNewswire/
-- Shortly after the announcement by Toyota
Motors that certain of its vehicles were
experiencing sudden, dangerous and
uncontrollable acceleration, a Queens NY couple
has commenced a suit for serious injuries
because this happened to them earlier this year
only two months after they bought their 2009
Toyota RAV-4 SUV. http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS125462+16-Oct-2009+PRN20091016
April
21st 2009 Houston News :Wild Rides -
Between serious safety and environmental
concerns, the Toyota Prius isn't the angel that
everyone thinks it is. Article mainly on
uncommanded sudden acceleration incidents by
Paul Knight. http://www.houstonpress.com/2009-04-23/news/wild-rides/1
April 7,
2008 Toyota Tacoma : Toyota pickup probe
pushed :Sudden acceleration claims hard to
pin down
BY JUSTIN HYDE • DETROIT FREE PRESS
WASHINGTON STAFF • It's a wonder Frank
Visconi walked away from the crash that turned
his new Toyota Tacoma pickup
into an unrecognizable mush of metal, plastic
and dirt. But Visconi has a different wonder --
why Toyota doesn't believe his complaints of
sudden acceleration. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080407/BUSINESS01/804070374
Nov 1st 2007
TOYOTA TACOMA "A growing number
of people are complaining about their 2007
Toyota Tacomas". Problems with
the vehicle include a sudden acceleration, even
when drivers said they pressed on the brakes. http://www.kcra.com/station/14478369/detail.html
January 9
2006 ConsumerAffairs.com: A wild ride in a
Prius: A 2005 Toyota
Prius driven by Herbert of Battle Creek rampaged
out of control on a Michigan highway in October
2005, endangering the driver as well as those
nearby. It's the second known incident of
sudden, uncontrolled acceleration in the
computer-controlled hybrids.The
incident occurred with cruise control engaged at
55 mph when driver accelerated to overtake
a slower vehicle The driver let off the
accelerator and pressed the brakes several
times, but the vehicle continued to accelerate
under full power. The driver unsuccessfully
tried to slow the vehicle by pushing the power
button, manipulating the cruise control lever,
and putting the vehicle in neutral. By applying
full braking power the driver was eventually
able to bring the vehicle to a halt. On pushing
the power button the vehicle then shut down. The
dealer was able to reproduce the fault but could
not identify the cause.http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/01/prius_rampage.html
January
9
2006
Automotive
News: Toyota wins at NHTSA ...but loses a
customer On July 5,
Jordan Ziprin's 2002 Toyota Camry shot backward
out of a driveway and crashed. Since then, the
74-year-old Phoenix lawyer has insisted that the
electronic throttles of some 2002-05 Toyota and
Lexus vehicles are defective. Ziprin inundated
the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration with documents that he says prove
his point. But last week, NHTSA - which has a
long history of ruling against claims of
unintended vehicle acceleration - rejected
Ziprin's petition. Agency officials, who say
driver error causes most sudden-acceleration
incidents, found no evidence of a defect.
In 2004 NHTSA reached the same conclusion after
it investigated similar complaints about 2002-03
Toyota and Lexus vehicles. But Ziprin told
Automotive News last week: "I'm not going to let
this go. I would be more than happy to
cross-examine" NHTSA's experts.
November 15
2005 ConsumerAffairs.com: Prius Runs Amok
After Stalling, Hits Tow Truck: A
Toyota Prius suddenly stalled, then
unaccountably took off and smashed into the tow
truck that had come to remove it. Toyota has
warned Prius owners of a software glitch that
can cause the hybrid cars to suddenly stall or
shut down and federal safety regulators are
looking into the problem. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/prius_stalls5.html
August
11, 2005The
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) has launched an investigation of several
Toyota models because of uncontrollable and
unintended acceleration while the vehicle is in
reverse. The agency has received 13 reports of
accidents because of the uncontrollable
acceleration.NHTSA
has
received
complaints
involving
the
Camry,
Solara, Lexus, ES, ES 300, ES 330 losing
throttle control while the vehicle is reversing
out of a driveway. The vehicles were all
manufactured between 2000 and 1005. [NHTSA
Action Number: DP05002]
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/recalls04/2005/nhtsa_toyota.html
Feb 22 2005
France: Toyota Corolla speed regulator
fails to disengage at a toll station on the
Chambery - Grenoble Autoroute. 5 people
hospitalised. Le
Monde
July 27 2004Reuters : US Closes Safety Probe of
Camry, Lexus Models
April 1,
2004 Federal safety officials
are investigating reports that the Toyota
Camry and other models may have
a defect that causes
sudden acceleration surges.
The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) says it has
received reports of 30 crashes that
injured at least five people, when some Toyota
Camry, Camry Solara and Lexus ES300 vehicles
suddenly and unexpectedly surged forward.
[ Link not valid Aug 05
http://www.thewbalchannel.com/automotive/2966685/detail.htm]
February 4 2004 : Toyota Camry 2002 Model:
Report of Sudden Acceleration Problem when
approaching traffic lights to turn left. Vehicle
went straight on. Brakes and handbrake of no
effect. Travelled 1/4 mile and brought to halt
in a snow bank.
http://www.complaints.com/directory/2004/february/10/29.htm
March 2001: 53,061
Toyota Camrys built between 1998-2001were
recalled. "On certain passenger vehicles
built at Toyota’s Kentucky plant, the
accelerator cable housing could be
deformed at the cruise control
actuator-to-throttle body
connection. The accelerator
inner-cable could wear away and eventually
break, allowing the throttle to return to
idle or remain in its most recent position
regardless of accelerator pedal
operation. This could increase the
risk of a crash." [NHTSA
Recall No. 01V012M]
1986 : 4561 1982
Model Year Toyota Cressidas, Celicas and
Celica Supras were recalled
because soldered terminals of the cruise
control module may develop cracks due to
improper application of the coating to
the printed circuit board. "During
the manufacturing process of the cruise
control computer, the printed circuit
board may have had improper application of
its coating, which could cause the
soldered terminals of the IC to develop
cracks. Continuing use may lead to a
complete separation of the soldered
terminals, resulting in non-conductivity
of the circuit. In the worst failed
circuit case, should the engine be started
with the cruise control main switch in the
"On" position, the engine speed may
instantly race, and if the driver of an
automatic transmission-equipped vehicle
shifts into "D" or "R" without firmly
applying the brake pedal, the vehicle
could suddenly accelerate." [NHTSA
CAMPAIGN ID Number: 86V132000]