Toyota not to blame for bellwether unintended acceleration case
Toyota is not to blame for a fatal accident that happened back in 2009 when a 66-year-old woman’s Camry sped out of control and crashed into a tree, at least this is the decision of a Los Angeles jury which ruled that there was no defect in Noriko Uno’s 2006 Toyota Camry.
The verdict thus rejects Noriko’s family allegation that the absence of a brake override system was responsible for Uno’s car failing to stop when she was applying the brakes.
According to a Bloomberg report, the jury attributed full responsibility to the driver of a second vehicle who ran a stop sign and crashed into Uno’s car before her fatal accident, and also ruled that the other driver should pay US$10 million in damages to Uno’s family.
This case is considered to become a bellwether for about 85 other wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits in the state of California that were brought against the Japanese car maker following a series of widely publicized recalls in 2009 and 2010 related to unintended accelerations. These problems included sliding floor mats and sticking accelerator pedals, but we should mention that the 2006 Camry in this case was not part of any of those recalls.
Jeffery Uno, the victim’s son, told reporters he was “very happy with the verdict” but “disappointed about the outcome with respect to Toyota”.
He continued to wish the best for other cases and hope that they will have better luck in regards to outcomes that will help shed more light on the problems in Toyota vehicles.
As far as the Japanese carmaker is concerned, Toyoda has said that it was gratified that the jury found that the design of the Camry did not contribute to the crash.
The statement from them said that the ruling affirmed the conclusions reached by their three-year long careful investigation into the matter, which found that there was nothing wrong with the vehicle in this case.
