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From EDMUNDS.com:
Toyota Safety Questions Continue as 2008 Avalon Has Fatal Crash
Published Dec 28, 2009
SOUTHLAKE, Texas — An accident here on Saturday may not be related at all to Toyota's November recall over supposed "sudden acceleration," but the question has been posed and investigators are looking into it. A 2008 Toyota Avalon was in an accident on Saturday in which the vehicle reportedly ran a stop sign, crashed through a fence and into a tree, then landed upside-down in a pond. Four people died, two shortly after the crash and two on Sunday. Toyota recently recalled the 2008 Avalon and several other models to fix a problem with a driver-side floor mat that could cause the accelerator pedal to become stuck.
A Southlake police officer interviewed by the Dallas Morning News said investigators are not sure yet whether the cause of the accident was driver error or a problem with the Avalon. Toyota has recalled more than 4 million vehicles to fix the potential stuck-accelerator issue. The automaker has directed owners of the affected vehicles to remove their driver-side floor mats and padding and is changing the accelerator pedal shape to fix the problem.
The automaker issued an advisory in late September asking owners of the affected Toyota and Lexus models to take out the removable driver-side floor mat and not replace it with any other mat. The advisory included the 2005-'10 Avalon, 2007-'10 Camry, 2004-'09 Prius, 2005-'10 Tacoma, 2007-'10 Tundra, 2007-'10 Lexus ES 350 and 2006-'10 IS 250 and IS 350.
The Los Angeles Times published an investigative report on December 23 that claims Toyota has "delayed recalls and attempted to blame human error" for reported problems. The paper also notes that Toyota has recalled vehicles eight previous times in the past decade over unintended-acceleration issues, which it says is "more than any other automaker." In an earlier story, the Times suggested Toyota's electronic throttle may be the root of the problem rather than the floor mats.
Toyota issued a statement saying the Times story "wrongly and unfairly attacks Toyota's integrity and reputation" and released a list of the paper's questions and the automaker's answers, which it says the newspaper story "distorted" or failed to use at all.
Inside Line says: There's enough controversy here to make people on every side nervous, from consumers to auto companies. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent
Toyota Safety Questions Continue as 2008 Avalon Has Fatal Crash
Published Dec 28, 2009
SOUTHLAKE, Texas — An accident here on Saturday may not be related at all to Toyota's November recall over supposed "sudden acceleration," but the question has been posed and investigators are looking into it. A 2008 Toyota Avalon was in an accident on Saturday in which the vehicle reportedly ran a stop sign, crashed through a fence and into a tree, then landed upside-down in a pond. Four people died, two shortly after the crash and two on Sunday. Toyota recently recalled the 2008 Avalon and several other models to fix a problem with a driver-side floor mat that could cause the accelerator pedal to become stuck.
A Southlake police officer interviewed by the Dallas Morning News said investigators are not sure yet whether the cause of the accident was driver error or a problem with the Avalon. Toyota has recalled more than 4 million vehicles to fix the potential stuck-accelerator issue. The automaker has directed owners of the affected vehicles to remove their driver-side floor mats and padding and is changing the accelerator pedal shape to fix the problem.
The automaker issued an advisory in late September asking owners of the affected Toyota and Lexus models to take out the removable driver-side floor mat and not replace it with any other mat. The advisory included the 2005-'10 Avalon, 2007-'10 Camry, 2004-'09 Prius, 2005-'10 Tacoma, 2007-'10 Tundra, 2007-'10 Lexus ES 350 and 2006-'10 IS 250 and IS 350.
The Los Angeles Times published an investigative report on December 23 that claims Toyota has "delayed recalls and attempted to blame human error" for reported problems. The paper also notes that Toyota has recalled vehicles eight previous times in the past decade over unintended-acceleration issues, which it says is "more than any other automaker." In an earlier story, the Times suggested Toyota's electronic throttle may be the root of the problem rather than the floor mats.
Toyota issued a statement saying the Times story "wrongly and unfairly attacks Toyota's integrity and reputation" and released a list of the paper's questions and the automaker's answers, which it says the newspaper story "distorted" or failed to use at all.
Inside Line says: There's enough controversy here to make people on every side nervous, from consumers to auto companies. — Laura Sky Brown, Correspondent
