Toyota said it agreed to this settlement in order to avoid a “time-consuming dispute.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today announced that Toyota Motor Corporation would pay $17.35 million, the maximum fine under the law, in response to the agency’s assertion that the automaker once again failed to report a safety defect to the federal government in a timely manner.
This latest action represents the single highest civil penalty amount ever paid to NHTSA for violations stemming from a recall. The last time Toyota faced civil penalties was in 2010 when the automaker agreed to pay $48.8 million as a result of three separate investigations into the automaker’s handling of auto recalls. Back then, Toyota paid fines for violations over pedal entrapment, sticky pedal and steering relay rod recalls.
In well-publicized Congressional hearings at the time, NHTSA was called a “lapdog” of the auto industry. Toyota fared about as well. It was revealed that North American Toyota executives had neither the authority, nor apparently the inclination to take action about the growing number of complaints about stuck gas pedals. Recalls by Toyota are still instituted from Japan in spite of promised reforms at Congressional hearing covering the original cover-up.
As part of today’s settlement, Toyota Motor Corporation and its U.S. based subsidiaries agreed, once again, to make internal changes to quality assurance procedures and the review of safety-related issues in the United States, and to improve their ability to take into account the possible consequences of potential safety-related defects.
This latest Toyota safety controversy started in early 2012 when NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation began noticing a trend in floormat pedal entrapment in 2010 Lexus RX 350s in Vehicle Owner Questionnaires and Early Warning Reporting data. In May, NHTSA contacted, and a month later Toyota advised NHTSA that it was aware of 63 alleged incidents of possible floormat pedal entrapment in Model Year 2010 Lexus RX 350s.
With virtually instant feedback available at the world’s largest auto safety agency, automakers are increasingly under pressure to fix defects and institute recalls within five business days as is required by U.S. safety regulations. Worse, in this case Toyota’s own technicians and dealers reported that certain alleged incidents of unwanted acceleration had been caused by floormat pedal entrapment going all the way back to 2009.
In July of 2012, Toyota Motor Sales in the U.S. added more than 150,000 Lexus RX 350 and RX 450h 2010 models to its previous 2009 recall that modified accelerator pedals because of floormat interference that resulted in unintended acceleration accidents and deaths. (Read AutoInformed on Toyota Adds 150,000 Lexus Models to Deadly Floor Mat Recall. NHTSA Says Filing Lacks Required Info. Another Cover-up? And NHTSA Prompted Latest Lexus Recall after Web Complaints)
The initial Toyota report of this expanded recall was missing the mandated chronology of events, including a summary of all warranty claims, field or service reports, and other information, including accidents and fatalities, with their dates of receipt.
The Department of Transportation that NHTSA is part of has a huge $79 billion annual budget, but little of the money is actually allocated to auto safety. This is curious since motor vehicles are responsible for 95% of the nation’s transportation deaths, but mysteriously only 1% of what looks to be a bloated, pork-ridden Transportation budget.
Worse, the enforcement arm of NHTSA has an annual budget of less than $20 million – laughable in the face of auto companies with hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenue from vehicle sales and billions in potential legal liabilities.
See also:
- BMW Follows Toyota by Paying $3 Million Fine for not Reporting Safety Defects within Five Days to NHTSA
- NRC Agrees Toyota Unintended Acceleration Mechanical – but NHTSA Didn’t Address Auto Electronics Safety Concerns
- Ford Recalls More than 1 Million F-Series Trucks for Fuel Tank Fires. Reverses No Risk Stance after NHTSA Digs Deeper
- Toyota Recall Study Finds Adversarial Relationship with NHTSA
- Volvo Fined $1.5 Million for Not Reporting Safety Defects
