Many Smoking Guns in the Toyota Crisis
As an experienced vehicle defect lawyer since 1979 specializing in catastrophic injuries and wrongful deaths, I am well aware of the secrecy that many automobile manufacturers go to in order to protect their product by putting profits ahead of consumer safety. In the last few weeks, there have been a number of outstanding revelations and smoking guns revealed in the Toyota crisis.
Lately another smoking gun has surfaced which will greatly undercut Toyota’s polished reputation for attempting to be holier than thou when it comes to disclosing safety issues and fixing potentially dangerous problems. According to this news story, Toyota apparently bargained with U.S. regulators to limit the scope and cost of its recall. Sources report that internal Toyota documents from July 2009 entitled “Wins For Toyota Safety” state that the firm saved 100 million dollars by convincing the NHTSA to limit an accelerator recall to 55,000 Lexus and Camry models. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Toyota document, by linking safety issues to corporate profits, could prompt difficult questions for Toyota company executives, adding to their problems as a result of the 8 million vehicle recall. This memo highlights Toyota’s aggressive efforts to save money rather than recall cars, putting profits ahead of consumer safety.
As an experienced vehicle product liability lawyer, I salute the national and international news media for calling attention to Toyota’s attempts to camouflage or sweep their situation under the carpet. I am now more than ever concerned that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration may also have not such an innocent role in that it agreed to this bargaining arrangement with Toyota when their job was to protect the American people from such behavior and irresponsible actions by Toyota.
