Toyota neglected safety issues: US lawsuit

Los Angeles, Aug 3: A US lawsuit on Monday, Aug 2 claimed that Toyota Motor Co ignored evidence of acceleration problems in its vehicles for most of the past decade and failed to install a brake override system.

The suit referred an internal company memo as saying that Toyota's US sales arm had requested a "fail-safe (brake override) option" in 2007, three years before the company committed to making that safety feature standard.

Toyota also failed to address a marked spike in complaints involving sudden unintended acceleration starting in 2002.

However, Toyota Co claimed that ill-fitting floor mats and sticking gas pedals caused their vehicles to speed out of control but both addressed in safety recalls.

"We firmly believes that the system is completely safe and that reliable scientific evidence will demonstrate the safety of our vehicles in the investigations currently under way and, ultimately, to the court," stated the motor company.

OneIndia News