Lawyers Ask Court To Stop Toyota From Fixing Cars
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal wrote: “Hell, in modern imagination, is not a place of fiery lakes and acrid fumes. It’s a maze of deposition rooms you can’t escape, where nothing is what it seems. That’s where Toyota has landed.“
Welcome to hell.
The Parker Waichman Alonso law firm , of Great Neck, NY, teamed up with the Becnel Law Firm, in New Orleans, LA and put on Businesswire that they “filed suit on behalf of several consumers who purchased Toyota vehicles subject to various recalls issued in January 2010 for defects in the vehicles’ gas pedals. The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, seeks class action status.”
So what does the Esqs. from Long Island and New Orleans want? That Toyota is ordered to recall all affected vehicles? Isn’t Toyota already doing that? To the tune of some 8m (and mounting) cars worldwide?
Au contraire!
Their complaint “asks the Court to enjoin Toyota from implementing any fixes in the accelerator pedals of the subject vehicles without approval from the NHTSA.” To those who are not familiar with a strange language called Legalese, “enjoin” means “issue an injunction,” or, in even plainer English, “order someone to stop doing something.”
The lawyers ask the court to stop Toyota from fixing the recalled cars without approval from NHTSA. If the court grants this request, the cars will never get fixed.
The NHTSA never grants an approval. Toyota issued a press release that says “Regarding reports that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has “approved” a plan for our pedal recall; it is Toyota’s understanding that NHTSA does not officially approve recall remedies.”
The NHTSA can disapprove a recall plan. Approving one would mean taking responsibility. The NHTSA would never do that.
In case the judge wags his or her finger at the attorneys about that frivolous detail, they allege some more:
“The class action lawsuit filed by Parker Waichman Alonso LLP and the Becnel Law Firm, LLC alleges that, as a result of these recalls, Toyota owners lost the use of their vehicles, and sustained, among things, economic losses and severe emotional distress.”
TTAC is discussing with its legal team whether we should join the class action suit, and allege the loss of untold man-hours while covering the saga, along with losses incurred due to spikes in bandwidth and the c ost of purchasing two accelerator pedals.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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I looked at the picture of the Lexus' shifter that was involved in the tragic accident involving the highway patrolman and his family. I was under the impression that it was more "complex" than the ordinary Toyota shifter. Not so. It's identical to the one in my 2010 Matrix. He should have been able to stop the car, but was obviously quite unfamiliar with the car or the shifter somehow got stuck. I know that by experience, they can be literally nudged into neutral without any effort. He could also have moved the lever to the left and gone into "S" shifter mode and manually downshifted the transmission if he noticed the car beginning to accelerate on its own. Anyway, I think it comes down to a lot of drivers not being highly versed or skilled in operating their vehicles interms of emergency procedures. I know, I would have made that shifter move, regardless of what damage it might inflict on the car's tranny or engine. Regardless, it was a terrible and sad event.
Almost a year has gone by and everything has been forgoten. Toyota is as good as new.