US files charge against Toyota, $1.2B penalty

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:
Last point, this vehicle was a loaner car from a Lexus Dealership and was loaned out days before. The car was reported to have had a uncontrolled acceleration. The driver reported this to the dealership. But the person did not say the mat or mats were stuck under the peddle.

Don, did you actually read the linked article? This is an exact quote from the article...

article wrote:
Bernard noticed the floor mat had become stuck under the accelerator pedal. After he cleared the mat, he drove normally, although likely a little shaken.

When Bernard returned the vehicle to Bob Baker Toyota/Lexus on the evening of August 25, he reported the problems to the receptionist.

"I think the mat caused it," he told the receptionist upon handing her the keys. "You need to tell someone."

FYI, Bernard is the name of the guy that used the same exact vehicle immediately before the CHP officer did.

Also, I am a police officer. I work with several idiots. I'm sure everyone here has either run into, or heard a story about a stupid cop. I don't know the CHP officer that died, I make ZERO representation about his level of training or intelligence. I am simply stating the fact that police officers are all human. In every subsection of human, you are going to find idiots. In my 12 years on the job, I have never received training in how to remove a stuck carpet from under the accelerator. People make the argument that this simply couldn't be the cause because he is a well trained cop. One has nothing to do with the other.

I potentially understand the reason he didn't turn off the car, you have to hold the button for 3 seconds. I can assume that he had driven the car before and turned it off before by holding the button for 3 seconds... but I don't know for certain. I do know that ANY vehicle can be placed in neutral (or clutch pushed in) and the vehicle can coast to a stop. Also, the braking action wouldn't be fighting the acceleration from the engine at that point.

Bottom line, I have heard ZERO factual evidence that there was anything other than misplaced floormats causing this accidents. Toyota's recall was threefold... They visually check every vehicle for improperly placed floormats and removed all non factory floormats. The shimmed the accelerator pedals to place them higher (further from the floormats) to prevent then from getting stuck under misplaced floormats. Finally, they installed a brake override feature that cuts the "drive by wire" input when the brakes are pushed.

All of these "fixes" were put in place to prevent problems with floormats. If the NHTSA had ANY proof at all that anything other then floormats caused this issue, why weren't there any other requirements of the recall? I have a 2010 Tundra and a 2008 Camry. They were both subject to these recalls and that is all that was "fixed".