Lawsuit claims Toyota ignored safety issues

[DainBramaged]

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 it knew could have prevented accidents, an amended federal lawsuit claims.

The revised lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Southern California on Monday on behalf of nearly 40 consumers and businesses for claims of economic losses, including diminished vehicle values, stemming from complaints of Toyota cars accelerating out of control.

Plaintiff lawyers say they expect the litigation will encompass some 40 million U.S. consumers if class-action status is conferred on the lawsuit as intended.

The amended suit cited an internal company memo as saying that

Toyota's U.S. 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, the year a new electronic throttle control system became standard equipment in its cars and trucks, the lawsuit claims.



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