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(Transportation-News.com, December 21, 2013 ) BATON ROUGE, LA – Toyota Motor Corporation has recently spoke about settling hundreds of state and federal lawsuits alleging its vehicles would suddenly accelerate and cause an accident, serious injuries, and death.
Since 2009, Toyota has been the world’s largest auto manufacturing company. As of recent, the company will be attempting to bring closure to plaintiffs for a rise in defective products. Thus far, Toyota has spent nearly $2 billion in legal costs, and has been in the spot light in regards to a defect in its cruise control device.
Hundreds of individuals have filed lawsuits against Toyota, which provoked the cases being consolidated. Under court orders, Toyota will begin settlement cases on an individual basis beginning in February. If no deal can be reached at this time, the suits will proceed to a mediator, then return to a trial schedule if no deal is made at this point.
According to Toyota spokesperson Carly Schaffner, “This process will bring greater efficiency to the resolution of pending cases and provide a clear path forward for those claims that cannot be resolved outside of trial.”
In Oklahoma, the first case to allege the electronic throttle-control system of being defective arose, which was a strategy that has not yet been pursued. In 2012, a woman driving a Toyota Camry was seriously injured in an accident, while her passenger was killed, following a sudden acceleration of the vehicle. The jury assessed a $3 million verdict against Toyota in this specific case.
The sudden arise in defective product cases have provoked Toyota to recall over 10 million vehicles around the world, while Toyota executives were subjected to congressional hearings. As a result, Toyota would pay over $65 million in fines for violating federal vehicles safety laws.
Following these cases, many questions have been raised regarding mass tort laws killing the future of driver-less cars. In essence, if any software mishaps were to occur, especially when there is no driver present to correct a mistake, it could result in dozens more lawsuits than Toyotas sudden-acceleration defect.
According to Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., of the Wall Street Journal, “What this also points up is the meaninglessness of Google’s claim that its self-driving cars have racked up 500,000 miles of accident-free driving-the equivalent of the first six minutes of driving in the 400,000 Toyota Camrys sold in the U.S. every year.”
Mr. Jenkins also reported, “By now, millions of Camrys have been on the road since Toyota introduced electronic throttle control in 2002. In effect, billions of hours of testing by public were required to elicit today’s relative handful of head-scratching cases of sudden, unintended acceleration that may or may not indicate a software mishaps.”
Google, and other innovative automotive manufacturers, have been testing self-driving cars over the past few years with a goal of releasing the first fully driver-less car by 2017. Depending on the outcome of this case, it could greatly influence this timeline.
Anyone who suffered an injury following an accident involving the sudden-acceleration of a Toyota vehicle is urged to contact Simien & Simien to speak with a lawyer about their legal options.
About Simien & Simien
The personal injury attorneys at the law offices of Simien & Simien have in-depth knowledge of maritime law, class action and mass tort litigation with serious emphasis on personal injury cases and cases of wrongful death from industrial, vehicular, and other life-threatening or debilitating accidents. Licensed to practice in Louisiana and Texas, Simien & Simien strive for perfection in all that they do and have an impeccable reputation from the thousands of clients that have sought their representation in legal affairs throughout the years
Simien & Simien
PMP Marketing Group
561-253-6712
pressrelease@pmpmg.com
Source: EmailWire.Com 
Source: EmailWire.com
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