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Lawyers Allege Toyota Accelerator Issue Was Known Before Hand

The Toyota accelerator issue has been all the buzz lately. The product liability attorneys involved in Toyota litigation have filed court documents that allege that Toyota technicians were aware of a problem involving sudden, unintended acceleration in certain vehicles.  However, the company quietly chose to buy back the vehicles from the customers, made them sign confidentiality agreements, and failed to bring the problem to the notice of federal auto safety regulators.

According to the documents, Toyota Motor Corp. failed to disclose that its technicians had managed to duplicate instances of sudden and unintended acceleration that were not linked to either sticky gas pedals or entrapped floor mats.  According to attorneys representing clients whose cars suddenly accelerated to uncontrollable speeds, the company was aware of problems related to sudden acceleration as far back as 2003.  However, the company failed to disclose the problem to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Now, the Toyota accelerator issue has been widely exposed.

When the technicians were able to replicate the acceleration problem in the vehicles, they reported the problem to the higher-ups at the company.   According to the attorneys, employees at the dealerships also witnessed and experienced the sudden and unintended acceleration in the vehicles.

According to the court documents, Toyota then embarked on a damage control exercise.  It decided to make a deal with customers.  The company repurchased the vehicles, and made the customers sign a confidentiality agreement, under which the customers promised they would not sue the company.

Toyota currently faces more than 300 lawsuits in both state and federal courts in the United States over the sudden and unintended acceleration problem in its vehicles.  Over the past year, the company has been forced to recall millions of cars, and an overwhelming majority of these were recalled for the sudden and unintended acceleration problem.  In all, California product liability attorneys noted that Toyota recalled approximately 8 million vehicles for problems of sudden acceleration.

The company has denied the allegations that it was aware of the acceleration problem, and made deals with customers to avoid litigation.  According to Toyota, its technicians responded to two reports of unintended acceleration.  In both cases, the company says, the technicians were unable to replicate the acceleration or find any related defect in the vehicle.  In both those cases, the company repurchased the vehicles from the owners for further analysis.

The company also denies that the technicians mentioned in court documents filed by the attorneys, refer to Toyota technicians.  According to the company, these technicians are usually employed by Toyota dealerships, which are independent businesses.

The new allegations that Toyota faces are serious.  Toyota has stubbornly refused to admit that the sudden and acceleration in its vehicles has anything to do with electronic throttle control systems.  The company has blamed its acceleration-related recalls on incompatibility of floor mats, or sticky gas pedals.  The acceleration problem is currently under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  Other investigations are being conducted by the National Academy Of Sciences.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of motor vehicle defects. Please visit our website at http://www.robertreeveslaw.com/. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us at contact@robertreeveslaw.com.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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