Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a statement on Thursday to correct what it said was “inaccurate and misleading information” announced and circulated by Toyota about its latest safety recall. The car manufacturer is recalling 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles to correct a defect that can cause the vehicles to accelerate suddenly and unintentionally.

Since the NHTSA first announced the recall on September 29, there has been a lot of conflicting information and confusion about the cause and solution of unintended acceleration in the recalled vehicles.

Early media reports claimed that floor mats caused the problem because they could slide forward and jam the accelerator pedal. Later reports suggested that Toyota would not issue a floor mat recall but instead would implement a “smart pedal” solution that would allow the brakes to disengage the accelerator when both pedals were simultaneously used. Subsequent reports indicated that the massive recall – the largest ever for Toyota – would indeed focus on the floor mat design only.

According to the NHTSA, in a press release published earlier this week, Toyota “inaccurately stated NHTSA had reached a conclusion ‘that no defect exists in vehicles in which the driver’s floor mat is compatible with the vehicle and properly secured.’”

The NHTSA said that it simply told consumers to remove the driver’s side floor mats in all affected vehicles as an “interim measure” to help prevent unintended acceleration from occurring.

“This remedy does not correct the underlying defect in the vehicles involving the potential for entrapment of the accelerator by floor mats, which is related to accelerator and floor pan design,” the NHTSA said, adding that it continues to work with Toyota to “fix this very dangerous problem.”

“This matter is not closed until Toyota has effectively addressed the defect by providing a suitable vehicle based solution,” the NHTSA warned.

Owners of the recalled Toyota and Lexus models are being notified of the recall by first-class mail. Once a solution is developed, consumers will be told in a second mailing the procedure for getting their vehicles fixed.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 2:39 pm and is filed under News, automobile accident, product liability, recalled products, safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.