A few months ago, giant carmaker Toyota became embroiled in one of the biggest controversies in the history of car safety when several American consumers complained about unintended accelerations allegedly caused by defective pedals mostly in its SUVs.
In the US, more than 50 deaths were blamed on the said defective pedals, triggering a full-blown Congressional investigation and the recall of nearly 8.5 million Toyota vehicles worldwide.
To recover its badly-damaged reputation, Toyota chairman Akiyo Toyoda even appeared before the US Congress in February to apologize to US consumers for the death and their faults. Eventually, the Japanese automaker was made to pay a record $16.4 million fines to settle the various claims.
New Findings
Agence France-Presse recently reported that federal safety investigators have presented to the US Congress new evidence on other causes of those fatal incidents involving “runaway” Toyota vehicles - aside from defects already known - which were the sticky gas pedal and pedal entrapment.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigators said that other than that defect, drivers are also partly to blame for the accidents. Based on data reviewed by investigators, they found that in at least 35 out of the 58 Toyota crashes involving unintentional acceleration, most drivers did not apply their brakes at all; 14 other cases involved partial braking and nine of them were applied late after the crash; and only one involved a case of pedal entrapment.
Though these finding are premature to draw conclusions on the real cause of these crashes, this shows that driver negligence is one factor to be considered.
Negligence as a Cause
Negligence is the common basis in establishing the liability of the party responsible in most personal injury claims involving accidents and injuries. Basically, under the theory of negligence, when a person acts in a careless manner which causes injury to another person, he can be held liable for the resulting harm.
Similarly, under negligence, manufacturers of a defective product can held liable for injuries incurred by consumers as a result of using the product.
To prove negligence in most accident cases, the victim must be able to establish the following elements:
- The party at-fault owed the victim a legal duty of care
- The party at-fault failed to fulfill this legal duty through his action or conduct
- The party at-fault caused the accident or the injury
- The victim was injured or harmed as a result of the action
In this case, both plaintiff and defendant in these cases would need the expertise and experience of good car accident attorneys.
