Europeans warned of Toyota pedals well before US

[Peacetrain]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100407/ap_on_bi_ge/us_toyota_recall


WASHINGTON – Long before Toyota told U.S. regulators about sticking accelerator pedals, the Japanese automaker warned its distributors throughout Europe about similar problems, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.

Concerns about sticking gas pedals and complaints from Toyota owners in the U.S. were rising at the end of 2009. The documents show that weeks earlier, on Sept. 29, its European division issued technical information "identifying a production improvement and repair procedure to address complaints by customers in those countries of sticking accelerator pedals, sudden rpm increase and/or sudden vehicle acceleration."

Distributors throughout Europe and in Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Israel received the technical information.