Submitted by Aiken Jacobsen on
In February we posted that the government's investigation into the Toyota recalls is now officially closed. However, there are still hundreds of pending personal injury lawsuits against the automaker.
The lawsuits typically concern allegations of unintended acceleration caused by faulty floor mats and mechanical defects. These allegations are still very much in the minds of California residents. We can all remember the California Highway Patrol officer who died in a 2009 car accident caused by the faulty floor mats.
Now, two years after the recalls began, the personal injury and product liability lawsuits against Toyota have finally begun. Unfortunately for injured consumers, the first U.S. jury case recently ended with a victory for Toyota.
A New York jury ruled that Toyota was not responsible for a 2009 accident in which a doctor's car suddenly accelerated and crashed into a tree. The man blamed the sudden acceleration on design defects in his car's floor mats or its electronic throttle control system.
Toyota successfully argued that the crash was the result of driver error which occurred when the driver stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake. After the trial, Toyota announced that the plaintiff was unable to "identify an electronic defect that could cause unintended acceleration."
Toyota also said that the verdict in this case would likely be an "important benchmark" for the hundreds of similar cases against the company. While the verdict is disappointing for injured drivers, it is too soon to take it as a sign of things to come.
With hundreds of lawsuits still pending, we must remember that each case is unique. Furthermore, one verdict of one trial does not provide enough statistical evidence to predict how juries will rule in future cases. It will likely take more than a dozen cases before we can even begin to make predictions.
Source: Reuters Westlaw News, "Toyota wins first U.S. jury verdict over acceleration,"Jonathan Stempel and Jeff Roberts, 01 April 2011
