Personal Injury Lawyers > Personal Injury Blog > Products Liability > Toyota Lawsuits Provide New Hope for Man Sentenced in Fatal Accident Case

Personal Injury Blog

Toyota Lawsuits Provide New Hope for Man Sentenced in Fatal Accident Case

For thirteen years, a Minnesota man has pleaded his innocence, insisting that the crash that involved his Toyota Camry was not caused by negligence because he did slam on the brakes. No one was willing to listen to him. Now with Toyota admitting that the sudden acceleration problem may be more widespread than it earlier believed, Koua Fong Lee may finally have the justice he’s been waiting for.

In 1996, Lee, a Hmong immigrant was driving with his pregnant wife, four-year-old daughter, brother and father when the car launched off an exit ramp in St Paul, and crashed into an Oldsmobile. The occupants of the Oldsmobile, Javis Trice Adams and his 10-year-old son Javis Adams Junior died at the scene of the crash. Adams’ 6-year-old niece suffered severe injuries, and was left paralyzed. Tragically she died a few months later.

After the crash, Lee insisted that he had braked as hard as he could to prevent the collision. However, a mechanical investigation of the brakes found that they were functioning properly.  The prosecutor insisted that Lee had pressed the accelerator pedal instead of the brakes by mistake, which had caused the accident. He was found guilty on two counts of vehicular homicide, and sentenced to 8 years in prison.

The story would have ended there with Lee in jail and the Adams believing that the man responsible for their loved ones’ deaths had been punished.

Then the Toyota scandal broke.

There had been instances of unintended acceleration involving Toyota vetches being reported since 2002. That was the year the company introduced its now-popular electronic throttle control systems in its cars.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began to receive complaints of sudden acceleration against Toyota, but these were not found to be substantial enough to require a recall.  In 2009, a California Highway Patrol trooper and his wife, daughter and brother-in-law were killed when their car crashed after it accelerated to excessive speeds of more than 120 mph. That accident made headlines all over the world after it was revealed that a call to 911 made from the car just before the cash, claimed brake failure.

Since then, Toyota has responded with an apology by its President Akio Toyoda, as well as multiple recalls. The first recall soon after the crash blamed incompatible floor mats for the safety problem. Another recall issued this year blamed sticky gas pedals for the unintended acceleration. Toyota is dragging its feet on issuing a recall on the one thing auto safety experts and injury lawyers in California believe is the source of the problem – faulty electronic throttle control systems.

Now Lee has a shot at justice,. He is pleading for his case to be reopened.  All these years, he had been insisting his innocence, and to his delight, the Adams family who blamed him for the crash, now think he is innocent, and are planning lawsuits against Toyota. This could open the floodgates for more such lawsuits against Toyota in crashes wrongly blamed on driver errors.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of product liability. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

---