NHTSA ignored 4,150 COMPLAINTS?
Toyota had received more than 37,900 complaints concerning the ETCS, which have been installed in Toyota-brand vehicles sold in the United States since 1998.
+ 37,900 complaints ignored by Toyota
TOYOTA: CHAIN REACTION
A RUNAWAY LEXUS KILLED THESE PEOPLE:
TOYOTA SETTLE WITH A CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT FOR $10 MILLION.
Why do you think they would have settled?
This man went to prison after his RUNAWAY TOYOTA KILLED OTHERS.
WHEN A JURY UNANIMOUSLY AWARDED $$$, TOYOTA APPEALED THE VERDICT
see details on right]
TOYOTA settled the case below with a CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT.
Why? Was it because there were survivors who could testify about a RUNAWAY TOYOTA?
There are many others.
NHTSA won’t probe into Toyota unintended acceleration
August 21, 2015
Washington — The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Friday it will not open a formal investigation into unintended acceleration claims in Lexus and Toyota vehicles.
The denial is the second time this year the safety agency has refused to open a probe into unintended acceleration.
The petition filed by a California man was based on his interpretation of Event Data Recorder data from a crash his wife experienced in a 2009 Lexus ES350 vehicle and from two other crashes involving a 2010 Toyota Corolla and a 2009 Toyota Camry. NHTSA found that the three crashes were likely the result of using the accelerator — rather than the brake pedal — rather than sudden unintended acceleration.
"The petitioner's allegations regarding the three crashes are based upon several misconceptions about the manner in which the EDR samples and records pre-crash data in the ES350, Corolla and Camry vehicles. In each of the three crashes, the vehicles accelerated as the drivers were attempting to park the vehicles. All three accelerations occurred as the vehicles were entering the intended parking spaces and in the times and positions where driver braking should be initiated to safely park the vehicles," NHTSA said. "No braking was recorded in two of the crash events until the EDR trigger point... and in the third crash no braking was recorded at all."
NHTSA said the crashes "are all consistent with pedal misapplications by the driver mistaking the accelerator pedal for the brake when attempting to park the vehicle. In addition, contrary to the petitioner's assertion regarding previous studies by NHTSA and NASA, the issues raised in the petition are fully within the scope of prior studies which have carefully examined the subject of low-speed sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles equipped with electronic throttle control."
In May, NHTSA denied another petition that claims sudden unintended acceleration problems were occurring in up to 1.6 million Toyota Corollas.
NHTSA said it was closing its review without a full investigation of “low-speed surging” in 2006-2010 Corollas in which brakes fail to stop the car in time to prevent a crash.
The owner of a 2010 Corolla alleged that while parking, the Toyota collided with another parked car. The petition said a review of the NHTSA database found 163 reports in which drivers experienced low-speed power surges in the cars. NHTSA said it found no evidence the driver had applied the brakes.
NHTSA spent years investigating millions of Toyota vehicles for unintended acceleration issues linked to faulty floor mats and other issues. After four people were killed in a crash linked to an accelerator pedal that had been trapped by a floor mat, Toyota recalled more than 10 million vehicles worldwide because of the issue in 2009 and 2010. Several reviews have found no evidence that electronic glitches were to blame for unintended acceleration — but blamed the issues on mechanical interference like floor mats
In March 2014, Toyota paid a $1.2 billion fine to the Justice Department after it was charged with wire fraud. Toyota admitted it misled U.S. consumers by concealing and making deceptive statements to both consumers and regulators about the extent of sudden acceleration problems in 2009 and 2010, the Justice Department said, adding that Toyota minimized problems, misled regulators and provided inaccurate facts to Congress. THIS REPORTER NEEDS TO READ THE SETTLEMENT!
Toyota has radically revamped its safety practices since its recall crisis briefly forced the automaker to halt sales of nearly half of its vehicles and led to the company’s president, Akio Toyoda, to appear before Congress to apologize for the company’s handling of safety issues. The company’s safety reputation has dramatically rebounded and it has won high marks in recent quality surveys.
HAVE THEY?
Toyota has settled numerous other suits connected to the problem, including a class-action settlement covering as many as 22 million current and former Toyota owners over sudden acceleration claims valued at as much as $1.63 billion.
NHTSA has been investigating other claims of unintended acceleration — an issue it has reviewed for 40 years, when it first opened an investigation into 60 million General Motors vehicles in 1978. The probe lasted eight years and was closed without finding a defect.
In June 2014, NHTSA said it was investigating 360,000 2012-2014 Nissan Versa cars after receiving four complaints in the U.S. that a trim panel had trapped the edge of the driver’s shoe. A fifth complaint was filed by a driver in a foreign country.
A complaint filed June 9 said a driver had to use their right hand to grab their leg and pull their foot free, almost causing a crash. The complainant included a photograph showing how the edge of the panel wedged itself in the driver’s work boot. That probe was upgraded to an engineering analysis in April.
In May 2014, Ford Motor Co. said it was recalling 82,500 driver’s side all-weather Ford floor mats that may be in 2006-11 Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan, Lincoln Zephyr and MKZ cars. If improperly installed, the mats may come in contact with the accelerator pedal. Owners were asked to return the mats for a new set.
NHTSA has been investigating the floor mat issue for four years. The agency said it had 52 reports of problems with floor mats in its investigation of 480,000 2008-10 Fusion, Milan and MKZ cars. After NHTSA told Ford it was recommending a recall, Ford opted to recall the vehicles.
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/foreign/2015/08/21/agency-probe-toyota-unintended-acceleration/32111075/
GEOTALK • (August 21, 2015)
We have been telling our story for 3 years to no avail. But wrong is wrong and
unanticipated acceleration happens. After we reported the incident to our insurance
company, Toyota shut down everything. They sent a tech to the dealership, and no one
was allowed to talk to him. He drove the car around the parking lot and pronounced it
good. Our Prius (many others do this) would always "skip" a little when stopping at places
with loose gravel. In this case, we were sitting completely still in a parking lot waiting for
my sister-in-law to park her car, when our car took off and flew over two barriers and
dropped 17 inches to the ground below. My foot was never on the accelerator. IF it had
been on the accelerator and even if the accelerator had been "floored" it still would not
have flown that far that fast. We have photos and witnesses, but Toyota will not
acknowledge this problem exists. Blaming it on the driver makes me ashamed of a
company I once respected. I filed a report with the NTSB...what else could I do?
Someday, someone will be sitting at a crosswalk, the car will lurch forward, kill people,
and the driver will be blamed. We had no other option, but to trade the car into Toyota
after we received a letter from them saying that there was nothing wrong with the car!
Maybe if enough people tell their stories someone will believe them
This is AP's version of the White Wash:
Agency Won't Open Probe Into Toyota Unintended Acceleration
DETROIT — Aug 21, 2015
U.S. safety regulators have rejected an electrical engineer's request to investigate low-speed unintended acceleration in Toyota and Lexus cars.
The petition was the latest in a string of claims that Toyota vehicles can accelerate on their own dating to 2009.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in documents posted Friday, said that three crashes cited in the engineer's request are consistent with the driver mistakenly hitting the gas pedal instead of the brake. The agency also says the issue was examined carefully in two previous government studies.
Gopal Raghavan of Thousand Oaks, California, who has a doctorate degree from Stanford University, filed a petition seeking the investigation in June.
He contended that his 2009 Lexus ES350 sedan surged suddenly in a parking lot while being driven by his wife, crashing into some bushes and smashing the front of the car. He wrote in his petition that she did not press the gas, which was documented by the car's event data recorder. He believes the car's electronic throttle control malfunctioned.
Raghavan also cited event data recorder information in two other crashes involving Toyota vehicles and asked NHTSA to do a more detailed analysis of the cars' hardware and software.
But the agency wrote that his petition was based on "misconceptions" about how the event data recorder samples and records data before a crash.
"The crashes are all consistent with pedal misapplications by the driver mistaking the accelerator pedal for the brake when attempting to park the vehicle," the agency wrote.
Raghavan said Friday that the event data recorder shows no movement in the gas pedal until one second before the crash, which he says doesn't make sense. NHTSA, he said, told him that the gas pedal was being pumped between the samples taken every second by the event data recorder, a contention he disputes. "It's a great coincidence that it just happens right in the middle," he said.
Complaints have brought investigations and recalls totaling 10 million vehicles as well as multiple lawsuits and a $1.2 billion penalty for hiding information from NHTSA.
The recalls were for mechanical problems — faulty brakes, sticky gas pedals and floor mats that could trap the accelerator. But although Toyota has denied it has problems with electronic throttle controls, allegations of problems have lingered.
In May, NHTSA rejected a Rhode Island engineer's request for a similar investigation after his wife got into a crash in a 2010 Toyota Corolla. The agency said it put over 2,000 miles on the man's car but could not find any problems with the throttle or transmission systems.
A message seeking comment from Toyota was left Friday for a company spokeswoman.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/agency-open-probe-toyota-unintended-acceleration-33225480
TOYOTA has PAID SHILLS that post meaningless comments to downplay the significance of TOYOTA's White Wash.
THE PAID TOYOTA SHILLS ARE AT WORK!
How do you know who's a TOYOTA SHILL?
THE TOYOTA SHILLS resort to:
NAME CALLING
INTRODUCE FALSE ACCUSATIONS [such as Koua Fong Lee was intoxicated, when in fact, he was returning from church and no evidence of such has ever been presented]
MISREPRESENT THE FACTS or MAKE UP THEIR OWN
Continue to repeat the same lies
and much else clearly revealed in their comments
Have a WONDERFUL WEEKEND and notice that NTSTA released this kind of notice at the end of the news cycle!
JUST MY OPINION....AT THE MOMENT
