Toyota Crisis May Lead to Mandatory Brake Overriding Systems on All Cars
With increased focus on Toyota, lawmakers are placing pressure on federal transportation safety agencies to require that all automakers equip their vehicles with brake overriding systems. These systems would allow the brakes to override the accelerator pedal when both the brake pedal and the gas pedal are depressed at the same time.
A third congressional hearing into Toyota’s safety issues was held last week, and the topic of a brake overriding system on all vehicles by all automakers, was brought up. Leading the calls for mandatory brake overriding systems on all cars is Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D- West Virginia, who is the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Rockefeller openly wondered why lawmakers couldn’t ask all automakers to have brake overriding systems that would prevent acceleration to dangerous speeds. Such a system would help reduce the vehicle’s power, and enable the motorist to gain control over the car during an episode of sudden acceleration.
Accidents caused by sudden and excessive speeding have been traced to 52 deaths and fatalities, as reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. According to Sen. Rockefeller, the system that is in place to prevent such safety issues from slipping through the cracks has failed, and lawmakers need to fix it quickly before there are more deaths and injuries. Requiring a brake overriding system on all vehicles would prevent the kind of injuries and fatalities that are cropping up every day from this problem.
By all accounts, Toyota is not the only automaker facing the acceleration problem. Other automakers including Ford, have been linked to sudden speeding up of vehicles without driver input.
Toyota has already confirmed that it will retrofit vehicles that were included in the recent recalls with brake overriding systems. It has also said that brake overriding systems will be fitted into all future vehicles manufactured by the company. The brake override system is actually already in place in some vehicles like BMW models.
Meanwhile, Toyota is also acting to enhance safety at its US facilities. It may be a little late to stall the growing number of personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits piling up against the company, but it may help prevent future safety issues at the company. Before the crisis broke, Toyota was considered the biggest automaker in the world. According to the company’s president in North America, Toyota will set up an outside panel whose biggest purpose will be to advise the company’s North American affiliates about quality and safety issues. This will be an influential panel which will have direct access to Toyota chief Akio Toyoda.
A culture of minimizing safety problems and hiding them behind a veil of secrecy has been one of the many factors that auto safety experts and injury lawyers in California have blamed for the crisis Toyota finds itself in. For far too many years, the company has gotten away with denying that it’s vehicles were involved in acceleration episodes, or that the problem was widespread.
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.
