Toyota Cars, Recalls and Lobbyists
There is an interesting story here about how Toyota hired former staff members from NHTSA the federal branch of government charged with Highway safety. They then turned around and used their influence and knowledge to bury or limit investigations into known problems with Toyota's cars. The report says that two former NHTSA agency staffers helped bury four open investigations into accelerators which were sticking on some Toyota 2002-2003 Camrys and Solaras.
If you look at the NHTSA website it is now offering a Consumer Advisory for Toyota owners.
This information was discovered as a result of a Michigan lawsuit. Once again the legal system has shown its ability to get to the truth, and expose glaring problems with enforcement when left to the bureaucrats. I am reminded of a similar problem which was "uncovered" regarding the lack of responsibility in regards to the safety practices of regional air carriers like Colgan Air . Families of those killed in the crash of Flight 3407 are now going after the airline for damages.
Families of those killed due to bad Toyotas will soon be following in their tracks. I wonder how many Toyotas have crashed because of bad brakes and accelerators?
The unfortunate truth about these types of disclosures is that the loss of 27 Billion in stock value to investors at Toyota because of its defective products, bad brakes, sticking accelerators, will be the catalyst to product improvement, and not the loss of lives and mangled bodies. What about the loss in vehicle market value to owners? Once again the same old theme arises in Corporate America: Profit over People.
In my opinion a Product Recall like the recent ones involving Toyota vehicles is as close to finding the "smoking gun" as possible. It is very strong evidence by the manufacturer that its product is defective for some reason. It is what is called in law an "admission against interest" and is like a legal confession. Here is a good website for recent recall info of all kinds.
No wonder our government is not trusted. Trying to keep big corporations from hiring government employees to grease the skids is not working. Big Business is too powerful and until the people elect representatives willing to stop this, it will keep getting worse.
PS. Since writing the article above, criminal actions have been started against TOYOTA and a rash of lawsuits have been filed. See the update here.
