Sudden Acceleration & Toyota Danger – Is It Gas Pedals, Brakes, the Electrical System – or all 3?

This should be the worst week that Toyota has ever experienced.  So far.

First, there was the New York Times expose on their sudden acceleration problem.  Then, there were two Congressional committees setting investigatory hearings, and asking for documents.

Now, there’s news that not only are gas pedals a big problem on both Toyota vehicles and Lexus models, but there may be a serious problem with Toyota BRAKES.

Growing media coverage is exposing problems with brake failure in at least one model in the Toyota line — the 2010 Prius hybrid. Prius brakes appear to be failing, sometimes.  That’s serious and scary.

Layer that with other reports that maybe it’s not even the acceleration mechanics or the braking system that is the real issue, but the electrical system, and Toyota’s got a lot of questions to answer.

Just this week, testifying live before Congress, the Secretary of the Department of Transportation blatantly advised that Toyota owners just should not drive their Toyota (and presumably Lexus) vehicles until they had been seen, and repaired, by the dealer.

When a Presidential Cabinet member says “don’t drive these cars,” somebody should start to listen.

Especially when the diagnosis of what is making these cars potentially deadly isn’t nailed down — sticking gas pedal, failing brakes, glitches in the electrical system — you have to stop and wonder why Toyota hasn’t done more before now, and what they’re doing today to make their cars safe on our American roadways.

Serious car crashes not only kill people and seriously injure others, they can destroy entire families.  The impact of a deadly car crash has a tremendously wide impact that goes so much farther than the accident itself.  Ask anyone who’s had a loved one suffer in a car accident, it’s heartbreaking to recognize the long term ramifications these accidents can have.

Here at our firm, we’ve seen so much tragedy as the result of a serious auto accident — and we’ve never known anyone who left their home that morning, thinking they’d be in a crash that day.

This Toyota situation is extremely serious.  It does not appear that we know the full story, even with Congressional involvement.

If you or a loved one owns a Toyota or Lexus, please take heed of what we are all learning in these news reports.  And, if you are driving near a Toyota or Lexus on the road, be careful, too.  There’s danger out there.