Toyota issued a short response on their official website in response to federal transportation regulators seeking $16.4 million dollar fine for failing to notify safety regulators in a timely fashion when the potentially deadly sticking accelerator problem became known by the company.
Toyota issued this statement: "Toyota Motor Corporation(TMC) received notice from NHTSA on April 5 (in the United States) that the NHTSA is seeking a civil penalty. TMC is now considering it's response. Toyota has and will continue to practice it's philosophy of satisfying consumers with high quality vehicles that are safe and reliable, and responding to consumer feedback with honesty and integrity".
Unfortunately, for those consumers of Toyota products, was 54 fatal accidents according to federal government and as many as 100 deaths according to THE LOS ANGELES TIMES. In at least one case, before Toyota publicly acknowledged the problem one man was actually sentenced to prison for causing a fatal accident that he claimed was caused by the accelerator sticking. Lawyers for the man are now appealing the case based on Toyota's eventual acknowledgment of the sticking accelerator problem.
The fine sought by the NHTSA is equal to just $7.13 each for 2.3 million Toyotas eventually recalled by manufacturer. However, lawyers for the automaker will likely seek to reduce that amount. Lawyers for the company have several days to appeal and respond to the government's request.
60,000 pages of documents from Toyota related to consumer complaints with the products are known to exist. However, consumers often have some difficulty of convincing either manufacturers or government safety regulators of potential safety problems with many products in isolated cases. Often complaining consumers are warned of legal action by a company if they complain about a product, which deters many consumers from complaints. Usually, only after several complaints to a manufacturer, will many companies at least be willing to look at the possibility of a potential problem, even if serious injury or death occurred. And state and federal safety regulators often are unwilling to pursue very much action against isolated product problems unless widespread complaints or news media stories generate serious concerns. Often consumers are injured or killed by defective products with little recourse from either the manufacturer or the government. Many lawyers are unwilling to take defective product cases as well due to lack of time, etc., so few product liability cases ever reach the courts.
If anything, the lesson in this case seems to be that manufacturers of potentially deadly products might face a possible $7 fine per violation if they they fail to act in a timely manner. Whether a $7 fine per violation is enough to warrant better action by some manufacturers is probably unlikely to get their attention.
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