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Toyota Prius Linked to Two Incidents of Uncontrolled Acceleration, One in California

Toyota’s efforts to calm its customers and assure California injury lawyers, auto safety groups and federal agencies of the safety of its cars received a setback this week when two separate incidents including one in Los Angeles which a Toyota Prius accelerated to uncontrollable speeds. Luckily, neither incident resulted in serious injuries.

In the first incident, a 61-year-old man in San Diego called 911 to inform them that his Toyota Prius had accelerated to high speeds, and was out of control. The car had reached speeds of 94 mph. The motorist James Sikes, says that he pressed on the accelerator to pass a car, but then, the car simply kept on accelerating. Fortunately for Sikes, a California Highway Patrol Officer was able to respond to him. The officer gave instructions that helped Sikes bring his car under control. According to James Sikes, he had taken his Prius to his local dealer, but was informed that the recently announced Toyota repairs didn’t include the Prius.

The other incident involves a motorist, whose Toyota Prius accelerated to high speeds and crashed into a concrete wall in Harrison in New York. The 56 year old motorist suffered injuries, but they were not reported to be life-threatening.

Meanwhile, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has said that it will investigate the two recent incidents of acceleration. The Toyota Prius is on the list of vehicles that were recalled by Toyota post the San Diego crash last year.

Toyota has already initiated damage control measures. It has rushed its investigators to San Diego where the first acceleration incident occurred. The San Diego incident occurred just a few miles away from the accident last year in Santee, that killed four people of a family, and pushed the acceleration problem into the international spotlight. Off-duty California Highway Patrol officer Mark Saylor, his wife, his daughter and brother in law were traveling in a loaner Toyota Lexus which accelerated to speeds of more than 120 mph, and crashed. This week, the families of Saylor and his wife Cleofe, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Toyota in the death of the four persons. The lawsuit has been filed in the San Diego Superior Court by Saylor’s father John Saylor, his mother Joan Robbins, his mother-in-law Fe Lastrella , and father-in-law Cleto Lastrella.

Later this month, a special panel of federal judges will decide whether the growing number of class-action lawsuits against Toyota should be consolidated into a single lawsuit.

There’s little support in Toyota’s corner. Even the repairs that the company developed to deal with the acceleration problem in its vehicles, have not worked as well as expected. Reports of acceleration in the vehicles that were fixed by Toyota dealers have been filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agency has said that it will look at these complaints carefully to see whether the repairs have been insufficient. Toyota insists that the repairs, if done properly, can solve the problem.

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 representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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One response to “Toyota Prius Linked to Two Incidents of Uncontrolled Acceleration, One in California”

1. Hayes Firm writes:
   

   Excellent coverage on this issue. The Toyota recall is something that we have been looking into to, and it’s important for people to know that have legal outlets and aren’t on there own when these emergencies occur.

   I hope you have continued success in your endeavors to represent individuals in need!

   @ March 11th, 2010 at 14:50