Thursday, November 12, 2009

Toyota recalls 3.8 million cars because of floor mats.

From Freep.com:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found no evidence of mechanical causes of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles, which has resulted in fatalities and Toyota's largest-ever recall, one of the company's top marketing executives said Monday.

"NHTSA recently closed another study finding that the only cause of unintended acceleration was an out-of-position or inappropriate floor mat," said Bob Carter, Toyota division group vice president. "There simply is no evidence of any other cause."

Toyota, which is asking owners of 3.8 million of its Camry, Avalon, Prius, Tacoma and Tundra models to remove or replace the mats, also characterized the problem of floor mat interference as an industry safety issue.

NHTSA received reports of 102 incidents in which the accelerator may have become stuck on certain Toyotas. The agency has not said how many of those incidents involved crashes. But an August accident near San Diego killed a California Highway Patrol officer and three family members when the Lexus ES350 he was driving barreled out of control. In a 911 call, someone in the vehicle reported the accelerator was stuck and the driver couldn't stop the vehicle.

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