It's a prosecutor's favorite question: What did you know and when did you know it?
With the feds now alleging Toyota of "knowingly hiding dangerous defects", and proposing a record civil fine, this is a bad time to have the wrong answer.
Now it looks like the timeline is back at least as far as January 16. Read the memo at Freep.com and the story behind it at Automotive News (free registration required).
So what's really causing unintended acceleration? Find the cause, prove it and get rich. As in a million dollars. Edmunds.com is running the contest. Details here.
The gloves have come off. The United States government is accusing Toyota of "knowingly hiding a dangerous defect" that caused its cars to accelerate unintentionally.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood proposes the maximum possible fine: $16.4 million.
76 year old Myrna Marseille of Wisconsin was parking her 2009 Toyota Camry at the local YMCA when she says it accelerated suddenly...into the Y's wall.
Toyota tells WISN-TV it's investigating. Potentially helpful...the Sheboygan Falls Police Department is right across the parking lot from the Y....and has security cameras that may have caught the entire event.
The Los Angeles Times says its review of public records indicates 102 people have been killed in Toyota vehicle accidents linked to unintended acceleration.
The squeaky gas pedal gets the grease...or something like that.
Anyway, The New York Times has a memo from Toyota to its dealers telling them to replace accelerator pedals only if customers complain about the metal bar repair Toyota recommends.
“Accelerator pedal replacement is based on specific customer request only,” said the memo, which was addressed to dealers, service managers and parts managers. “Dealers are not to solicit pedal replacement.”
The TSB from eight years ago was provided by attorneys for plainiffs in class action suits. They say it proves Toyota knew it had a problem, and knew it wasn't floor mats, at the beginning of the last decade.
Toyota calls them "baseless allegations" and "unfounded claims".
Three class-action lawsuits alleging securities violations have been filed against Toyota by shareholders who say Toyota "failed to disclose ongoing safety issues" including faulty gas pedals.
A three-year old document just released by a Congressional committee gives insight into Toyota officials and their self-described "game plan" for dealing with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration's growing concerns over floor mats interfering with accelerator pedals.
Interesting reading, to say the least. Full story from The Detroit News here.
The March 11 demand letter, obtained and published today by Gawker, alleges that "the American public and the U.S. Congress were seriously misled by ABC News.
there's another problem: Cars stopping when they shouldn't.
Toyota says it's trying to figure out how to fix computer flaws in more than a million 2005 through 2007 Corolla and Matrix models that can cause the cars to stall. NHTSA has 76 complaints from owners. Toyota says it does not pose "an unreasonable risk...to safety."
Here comes another round of "What did you know and when did you know it?". And this time, it's the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration in the hot seat.
This is it...the entire 24-minute uncut 911 tape from San Diego County real estate agent Jim Sikes, who says his Prius accelerated unintentionally on I-8 eastbound Monday afternoon.
Even more so than the final 3 minutes released yesterday, this tape shows just how sharp the 911 dispatcher was and calls further into question Sikes' actions.
You only need to listen for the first three and a half minutes to hear the telling question and lack of an answer from Sikes:
911: "Is there a way you can put the car in neutral, sir?"
Sikes: "No."
911: "No? Have you tried to put it in neutral?"
Sikes: "I'm trying to control the car."
911: "Okay. Have you tried to put the car in neutral?"
Sikes: "No."
911: "Can you try that?"
Sikes: (no response)
911: "Sir?"
Sikes: (no response)
911: "Can you try to put the vehicle in neutral?"
Sikes: (no response)
911: "Sir?"
Sikes: (no response)
911: "Jim!"
Sikes: (no response)
911: "Jim."
Sikes: (no response)
911: "Jim."
Sikes: (unintelligible)
911: "Jim."
Sikes: (no response)
911: "Jim, listen to me. We have officers on the way, I'm trying to get a hold of the helicopter. I need you to answer some questions for me."
Sikes: (no response)
911: "Sir, can you hear me?"
And so on.
As we reported yesterday, the 911 dispatcher gave Sikes all the right things to do...all the things that finally caused the car to stop when a CHP officer told him to do them over a PA system...20 minutes later.
In short, this could have been a 3-minute incident. But Sikes didn't do what he was told. And we don't have to interpret the 911 tape to arrive at that conclusion, either.
Sikes gave an interview to East County Magazine Monday night in which he says he didn't shift into neutral because he was afraid he "would be hit by another car if his car halted too suddenly."
So you're jamming on the brakes as hard as you can, ripping the lining off, but you think that dropping it into neutral might cause more rapid deceleration?
And your objective was to stop?
By the way, at 84 miles per hour, Sikes tells East County Magazine other cars "were passing me left and right".
Investigators will determine if something was wrong with Sikes' Prius. But it's very clear from Sikes' own words, both during and after the incident, that his actions could have kept this from being a major deal.
The final 3-plus minutes of Monday's "Runaway Prius" (quotes intentional) incident near San Diego:
Smart 911 dispatcher...asks James Sikes if the car is in cruise control.
No answer.
Tells him to hold the ignition button down for 3 seconds.
No answer.
Repeats the instruction.
No answer.
The CHP says the 911 call totalled 23 minutes...and the dispatcher repeatedly asked Sikes if he'd tried putting the car in neutral....and pleads with him to do so. The one answer she got:
"I'm trying to control the car."
Only when a CHP cruiser arrives on the scene...giving him the same instructions over the PA system (and an eyewitness), does he seem to do it.
More details can be read here. Note the correction in the article that the California Highway Patrol now says their patrol car was not used as a brake...but that it was tapped by the Prius only as it rolled to a stop, after the driver was able to shut the car down.
The driver in this case says he took his Prius with a recall notice to his local dealer, where he was told his car wasn't part of the gas pedal recall and repair.
UPDATE: Friday (3/5)'s Los Angeles Times reports the number of complaints of post-repair unintended acceleration now stand at 60. Story here.
Wednesday(3/3)'s editions of The Los Angeles Times report that at least seven Toyota owners who had their floor mats and gas pedals re-done under recall have complained to NHTSA of unintended acceleration after the repair work.
