GJEL Blog » Driving Information

Last week a group of Toyota supporters and anti-attorney advocates celebrated when the Wall Street Journal reported that early findings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed that many of the unintended acceleration claims against the Japanese auto giant were the fault of driver error, not vehicle electronics.

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In a rare “good news day” for the Japanese auto giant, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that according to early tests by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the majority of unintended acceleration incidents can be attributed not to electronic or mechanical problems, but to driver error. On first glance, this is a major coup for Toyota, which faces hundreds of lawsuits claiming that vehicle accidents and deaths resulted from electronic problems the company could have avoided.

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We wrote months ago that Detroit was poised to fight back against the proposed auto safety overhaul in Congress. In what became a caricature of the obstacles to pass important legislation aimed at powerful industry groups, Congressional safety committees have announced changes to the once-sweeping auto safety bills to significantly dull their impact. Among other concessions to the auto industry, the final bills will no longer lift the maximum fine for negligent auto companies, now capping it at $200 million, and auto companies no longer have to adhere to a timetable by which to impose new safety guidelines.

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We all love stories about renegade do-gooders taking on large corporations to expose wrongdoing or an attempts to deceive the public. To some, that’s the story of David Gilbert, a Southern Illinois University professor who sought to prove that Toyota’s unintended acceleration problems that have led the company to recall more than 9 million vehicles worldwide, were caused by electronic errors, not mechanical irregularities like floor mats and sticky pedals as the Japanese car mammoth claims.

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Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood emerged victorious after an odd scuffle between his agency and an anti-government regulation lobbying group. The Washington-based Seward Square Group circulated a memo this week, claiming that anti-distracted driving efforts are equivalent to “a full-throttle assault on mobile technology,” and that “auto, tech, and insurance industries…have become collateral damage.”

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For a state bogged down by a $19 billion budget deficit, any idea to raise money without increasing taxes is attractive. That’s why a handful of California lawmakers have lined up to support a futuristic plan for electronic license plates which flash advertising information when the vehicle has stopped for more than four seconds, a plan critics say could induce an increase in dangerous distracted driving.

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Last week, I pushed back against the assertions that Toyota plaintiffs will be disappointed by the fate of their lawsuits against the Japanese automaker that has recalled nearly 9 million vehicles worldwide this year. While unintended acceleration claims were unsuccessful against companies like Audi in the past, I wrote, Toyota’s mistakes are publicly well known, which could indicate that plaintiffs will be satisfied this time around.

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There are a handful of great reasons to drive safely. If you want to avoid vehicular injuries, car damage, or just dodge tickets from police officers, obeying traffic signs while paying close attention to the habits of other drivers are good ways to do so. But I suspect the most common reason that drivers stay under the speed limit is a fear of getting a ticket or being harassed by police officers. And why operate based on fear when we don’t have to?

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A front-page story in the San Francisco Daily Journal yesterday predicted that plaintiffs filing lawsuits against Toyota based on unintended acceleration problems could be disappointed by the results. The article points to past acceleration-related lawsuits, mostly against German automaker Audi, which failed to convince juries that electrical problems were to blame for the accidents rather than driver error.

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Is your teenager getting enough sleep? If not, he or she could be in danger of an early morning collision, says a new report by Eastern Virginia Medical School professors. Using data from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, the study compares crash rates for teenage drivers from two towns: Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. In Virginia Beach, where high school classes begin at 7:20 am, the crash rate was 41 percent higher than Chesapeake, where classes begin at 8:40 am.

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